Gavinus and Companions

ON SS. GAVINUS AND COMPANIONS: GAVINUS, SOLDIER, PROTUS, PRESBYTER, AND JANUARIUS, DEACON, MARTYRS AT PORTO TORRES IN SARDINIA,

IN THE YEAR 304 OR THE FOLLOWING.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Gavinus, soldier, martyr at Porto Torres in Sardinia. (S.)

Protus, presbyter, martyr at Porto Torres in Sardinia. (S.)

Januarius, deacon, martyr at Porto Torres in Sardinia. (S.)

BY B. B.

§ I. Whether St. Gavinus is different from St. Gabinus, of whom mention is made on the 30th of May; the memory of the holy Martyrs in the sacred calendars, and an abridgment of the passion. Notice of the city and church of Porto Torres; SS. Gavinus and Protus are not to be numbered among its bishops. The Acts.

Henschenius on the 30th of May published a brief Sylloge on SS. Gabinus and Crispulus, likewise martyrs of Porto Torres Acta SS., vol. VII of May, p. 235 and following.. [Whether St. Gavinus is different from St. Gabinus, who is venerated on the 30th of May?] Of St. Crispulus he brings forward nothing particular; but he reports that the body of St. Gabinus is preserved at Rome in the church of St. Peter in the Vatican, and that his altar is there; that the blessed Martyr is also venerated with an ecclesiastical office, because his body is there, but that all is said from the Common of one Martyr. He then adds: Different from this Gabinus is another, St. Gabinius, presbyter and martyr at Rome (of whom on the 19th of February), father of St. Susanna, virgin and martyr, and brother of St. Caius, pope and martyr, whose body is likewise preserved at Rome in the church of St. Susanna. But whether St. Gavinus, of whom we treat today, is different from that former one, of whom mention is made on the 30th of May, is disputed. Baronius in the Notes judges him the same: This, he says Roman Martyrology, 30 May., is thought to be the day of the Translation: for the birthday is kept on the 25th of October. Henschenius holds the contrary, who, having cited the words of Baronius, subjoins: But he (who is venerated on this day) is called in the ancient apographs of the Hieronymian martyrology Gavinus and more often Savinus (but the other Gabinus), and to him in the Blumian and that of Corbie, printed at Paris (so also almost in the More Ancient one of Florentini at 25 Oct.), are joined the companions Saturus, Asturus, Charus, etc.; while to the other Crispulus is given as a companion. Finally Gavinus or Savinus is recorded in the Acts of SS. Protus and Januarius, who suffered under Diocletian; Gabinus and Crispulus under Hadrian. Thus for a threefold reason Henschenius argues that they are different; first that the names differ; the one is called Gabinus, the other Gavinus; but this I should call slight, or rather of no moment, since the letters V and b are used interchangeably; then that different companions are given to each; to Gabinus Crispulus, to Gavinus Saturus, etc., and this is of graver weight; finally that the times differ strongly from one another; since the former suffered under Hadrian, the latter under Diocletian. And this would surely be decisive, if it were established about the time of each passion; but this is far from being so. Certainly very few things have come down to us about Henschenius's St. Gabinus. Many other Saints, says Arca [Giovanni Arca of Sardinia, de Sanctis Sardiniæ libri tres. Book II, pp. 39 and 40. Cagliari 1598.], were crowned with martyrdom, the course of whose life and martyrdom is known only by a very brief abridgment. SS. Gabinus and Chrispulus suffered martyrdom in the city of Turres on the 3rd before the Kalends of June, on the authority of Bede, Ado, Usuard. Nothing else. In almost the same manner Fara De rebus Sardois. In Grævius, vol. X, volume XV, col. 23.: Gabinus and Chrispulus, distinguished for holiness, having suffered martyrdom at Turres in Sardinia, are fittingly honored on the 3rd before the Kalends of June, as Usuard likewise relates. Fara does not mark the year of the passion, which however he intimates took place no short space of time before the year of Christ 125, in which he writes that St. Antiochus suffered; and this is the first of all whose time of martyrdom Fara determines. Salvatore Vitale follows Fara in the Annals of Sardinia, where at the end of his work, enumerating the first martyrs of Sardinia: The first place, therefore, he says Grævius, in the same place, col. 262., Fara attributes to St. Aemilian and his fellow soldiers; the second to St. Sallustian; the third to Saints Gabinus and Crispulus; the fourth to St. Crescentian; the fifth to Saints Justa, Justina and Henedina; the sixth to St. Antiochus of Sulci. None of these writers, therefore, assigns the contest of St. Gabinus to the reign of Hadrian; as neither do Ado nor Usuard, in whom the announcement is the same: At Turres in Sardinia, of the holy martyrs Gabinus and Crispolus (Ado: Gabinius and Crispulus); the Roman agrees: At Turres in Sardinia, etc.

[2] Reasons for doubting. On what foundation then does Henschenius rely in asserting that SS. Gabinus and Crispulus suffered under Hadrian? Namely on the testimonies of Dimas Serpi and Ferrari, of whom the former, in book I of the Chronicle of the Saints of Sardinia, page 29, asserts that they were "converted at the passion of St. Antiochus…" while Ferrari celebrates them with this encomium in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy: "Gabinus and Crispulus, citizens of Porto Torres, suffered after St. Antiochus under the emperor Hadrian." I for my part should not deny that he was crowned under this Augustus; but I do not find that our holy Martyrs were converted at his passion in Arca, who describes the contest at length De Sanctis Sardiniæ, book I, pp. 9–31.. Moreover our Pien, on the 1st of September, where he treats of SS. Rosa and Platanus at Sulci in Sardinia, says of the Acts of St. Antiochus, cited by Baronius in the notes at the 13th of December, on which he is announced, that he has the same Acts in hand, but in which, he says Acta SS., vol. I of September, p. 236., I should wish for the characteristic marks of a better history, which I also desire in the Passion in the aforesaid Giovanni Arca; which however will have to be more accurately examined at the 13th of December. Meanwhile I point out that neither in these Acts, which I have diligently read through as they stand in the hagiographical manuscripts of the royal library of Brussels, is any mention made of St. Gabinus; nor do I hold those Acts to be of better note than Pien does. For the rest, as we have already said, Fara and Vitale expressly report that SS. Gabinus and Crispulus suffered quite a long time before St. Antiochus. There is thus nothing in his Acts by which the holy Martyrs are proved to have been crowned under Hadrian. As regards Ferrari, he is at any rate not of such authority that his testimony alone should here prevail. Finally Dionisio Bonfant of Cagliari, although he places each holy Martyr under Diocletian, yet does not declare that this took place at the same time, and separates one from the other by at least a certain interval of days or months Triumpho de los Santos del regno de Cerdeña, pp. 329 and 425. Cagliari 1635.. For the rest, this writing of Dionisio is held in no great esteem; indeed it is incredibly thrashed in Muratori, who, relating that Bonfant's book was expurgated by decree of the Spanish Inquisition in the year 1641, adds: How I should wish that those censors had rather blotted out so great an abundance of fabricated martyrs, that is, had purged the whole book with one erasure Antiquitates medii ævi, vol. V, col. 17.. What then? Is that Gabinus the same as the Gavinus venerated on this day? I would not dare to assert so much: for although the reasons used by Henschenius do not seem to me altogether firm; yet from another quarter it appears from what has been said that the Sardinian writers speak of them as having suffered at different times, first indeed SS. Gabinus and Crispulus, and then St. Gavinus together with SS. Protus and Januarius, or at any rate with a space of a few days intervening. Next the feast is celebrated separately, that of the former on the 30th of May, that of the latter on the 25th of October, and moreover at the beginning of May the Dedication of the church of SS. Gavinus, Prothus and Januarius, and again the Translation of the bodies of SS. Gavinus, Prothus and Januarius, on the first Sunday of October, as Arca has it in the Calendar of the proper saints of Sardinia, already mentioned above. Finally, since nothing has come down to us about the former two holy Martyrs except what regards their cult, while tradition expressly distinguishes one Gabinus from the other of the same name, and this distinction rests also on the Hieronymian martyrologies, I should think one must stand by this tradition of the churches of Sardinia, until a clearer day dawns. Hence Pietro Martini: Wrongly, he says Storia ecclesiastica di Sardegna, vol. I, p. 18. Cagliari, 1839., St. Gabinus is confused by some with the other distinguished martyr St. Gavinus; and he adds the same reasons that we

have brought forward above. Compare Tillemont Mémoires, vol. V, p. 143 and following., and Mattei, who in the Sardinia sacra leaves the matter almost undecided, being however a little more inclined to the opinion which decides that the persons of these holy Martyrs are different Sardinia sacra, p. 43, note 3; p. 44, note 6 and p. 139. Rome, 1761.. But Mattei errs where he gives to St. Gavinus, to whom the church of Porto Torres is dedicated, St. Crispolus as a companion Ibid., p. 139..

[3] Memory in the martyrologies. Mention of our holy Martyrs occurs in the most ancient Hieronymian martyrologies, namely in the greater one of Corbie, which d'Achery edited in the Spicilegium Vol. II, at the beginning.; that of Lucca of Florentini, and the one of Antwerp or Echternach of Rosweyde, of which Sollerius makes mention in these words: Of that most ancient one of Antwerp or Echternach, written at the beginning of the eighth century Martyrology of Usuard, preface, page VI, n. 20.. But in these three not all the holy Martyrs are placed together on the same day, but on the 25th of October St. Gavinus alone is marked, while on the 27th SS. Protus and Januarius. On which matter Florentini aptly notes Vetustius occidentalis ecclesiæ martyrologium, page 937.: Although indeed they are said there (in the Acts, which we also edit below) to have been crowned on the 8th before the Kalends of November (25 Oct.), yet it is difficult that they should have been consummated on the same day as Gavinus, as can be plain to those who read those Acts attentively; but because the bodies thrown into the sea were found on the same shore and entombed together with Gavinus, it appears that they obtained the same birthday. Further, the three cited martyrologies, or rather three different apographs of the same martyrology, have these things about St. Gavinus, at the 25th of October; that of Corbie: In Sardinia, of Savinus, Saturus, Asterius, Charus; that of Lucca: In Sardinia, of Savinus, Saturus, Asthentarius; that of Antwerp: In Sardinia, at Turres, of Gavinus. And at the 27th, those of Corbie and Lucca: In Sardinia, of Potus, Januarius, etc.; that of Antwerp: In Sardinia, at Turres, of Protus and Januarius. The esteemed Florentini explains the variant readings thus in the same place Ibid., page 934.: More fittingly in the Antwerp Martyrology one of the Sardinian martyrs is set forth, namely at Turres, once a most flourishing city of Sardinia, St. Gavinus, not Savinus. Giovanni Arca sets forth his history from an ancient manuscript of the church of Porto Torres… There are narrated there as companions or rather teachers of St. Gavinus Prothus the presbyter and Januarius the deacon … who were consummated by the sword in the same place of the promontory of Balai, and, as is read there, on the 8th before the Kalends of November. Hence, that other companions should be added here to St. Gavinus, namely Saturus, Asterius and Charus, or, as in our books by the scribe's error, Saturus and, conflated into one out of Asterius and Charus, Asthentarius, adds to the suspicion that these should be joined with Zoticus and Saturus the Africans (who precede in that of Corbie), as the Antwerp Martyrology intimates, in which at Turres in Sardinia St. Gavinus alone is commemorated. In another Hieronymian Martyrology, from the codex of Reichenau, almost the same is held: On the 8th before the Kalends of November, in Sardinia, of Gavinus; on the 6th before the Kalends of November, in Sardinia, of Protus and Januarius. That codex merits to be called most ancient by Sollerius Martyrology of Usuard, preface, page IV.. So also Papebroch in the prologue to the martyrology of Bede Acta SS., vol. II of March, page V.: Of this kind are the two most ancient martyrologies of the monasteries of Reichenau near Constance and of Rheinau in Switzerland (in this one the months of October, November and December are lacking). See Acta SS. vol. VII of June. No memory of these three holy Martyrs is made in Ado and Usuard; in the Additions to the latter from Florentine codices Gavinus alone is announced: In Sardinia, in the city of Porto Torres, of St. Gavinus, soldier and martyr, who suffered under the governor Barbarus, in the persecution of Diocletian and Maximian: and from the same codices, of no great authority with Sollerius, at the 27th: In Sardinia, in the city of Porto Torres, of the holy martyrs and brothers Protus, presbyter, and Januarius, deacon, under the governor Barbarus, in the time of Diocletian and Maximian. In the Roman Martyrology St. Gavinus is omitted, and on this 25th of October memory is made: At Turres in Sardinia, of the holy martyrs Protus, presbyter, and Januarius, deacon, who, sent to that island by St. Caius the pope, were consummated in the time of Diocletian under the governor Barbarus. The birthday of the three together is celebrated in the church of Porto Torres on this day; while on the first Sunday of October: The Translation of the bodies of SS. Gavinus, Prothus and Januarius, and finally at the beginning of May: The Dedication of the church of SS. Gavinus, Prothus and Januarius Arca, book III, pages 72 and 73..

[4] Synopsis of the martyrdom We set down the history of the passion, as presented in abridgment by Ferrari Catalogus SS. Italiæ, 25 Oct., page 671.: Protus, who is called by the Sardinians Proptus, and Januarius, citizens of Porto Torres, when they had embraced the Christian religion, set out for Rome and were ordained by Blessed Caius the pope; Protus indeed, as the elder, Presbyter, Januarius Deacon. Having returned to Sardinia, while they were preaching the Christian faith and flourishing with wondrous holiness in the city of Porto Torres, in the most savage persecution of the emperors Diocletian and Maximian, they were arrested under Barbarus, governor of Sardinia and Corsica, and constantly endured various torments for Christ. Protus being deported to the island of Hercules (which the common people call Linaria), Januarius, as the younger, was tempted by blandishments and gifts to sacrifice to the gods. When this was done in vain, Protus was soon recalled, and both were hung on the rack and butchered with iron claws. But when they stood immovable in the faith, they were handed over to the custody of Gavinus the soldier. Dismissed by him when he had been converted by them to the faith, when afterwards they had offered themselves of their own accord to the torturers, they were executed with the sword in the same place in which St. Gavinus had been slain, and consummated their martyrdom on the 8th before the Kalends of November, about the year of Salvation 300. So Ferrari testifies from the Monuments of the church of Porto Torres or Sassari, and from Francesco Fara, book I of De Rebus Sardois. All of which are reported far more exactly, and would that also more truly, in the Acts edited below. And again the esteemed Ferrari on St. Gavinus, martyr and patron of Porto Torres Ibid., page 672 and following.: Gavinus, a Roman soldier (who they say was of the Savelli family), when at Turres in Sardinia he was guarding SS. Protus and Januarius, arrested for the Christian faith by order of the governor Barbarus, was converted by them to Christ and washed in the saving wave, and dismissed them free, because he said that they were innocent and bound without cause. When this became known to the governor, he at once ordered him to be held, and, found most constant in the confession of the faith, to be beheaded at the port which is called Balagium; in which place also Protus and Januarius, who, hiding in a suburban place of Turres, had been invited by Gavinus himself in a vision to the palm of martyrdom, were beheaded.

[5] and the time. Further, Ferrari annotates that the year (namely 300) in which these Martyrs are related by Fara to have suffered must be corrected: for the persecution was stirred up against the Christians under Diocletian and Maximian in the year of the Lord 302 (rather in the year 303), and it lasted for almost a decade Tillemont, Mémoires, vol. V, p. 815 and following.. It is thus certain that the passion (since this, from the Acts and from the common opinion of writers, assumed rather than proved, is assigned to the aforesaid persecution) did not take place before this year; nor even more probably in this very year; because the earlier edicts of Diocletian and Maximian did not make Christians capital offenders, but chiefly decreed that churches be demolished and sacred books handed over and burned, of which things no mention at all is made either in our Acts or elsewhere [Tillemont, Mémoires, vol. V, p. 20 and following. Art de vérifier les dates, p. 244.]. In the following year 304, however, the emperors acted more atrociously against the Christians, whence also throughout the whole Roman dominion an immense slaughter was made Tillemont, p. 49 and following.. Nothing surely prevents us from saying that our holy Martyrs of Porto Torres obtained the palm in that or the following year; all the more because, on the authority of Eusebius of Caesarea, the persecution in the West did not rage beyond two years Ibid., p. 119.. It is worthwhile to subjoin his words from the book on the Martyrs of Palestine, ch. XIII Migne, Patrologia Græca, vol. XX, col. 1518.: And these are the martyrdoms that were accomplished in Palestine in the space of eight years. Such was the persecution of our time; which, having taken its beginning from the overthrow of the churches, afterwards, the assaults of rulers following at various times, advanced far further. In which the various contests of every kind of those who fought bravely for piety produced innumerable martyrs in each province; namely in Libya and throughout all Egypt and Syria and all the provinces which stretch every way from the East to the tract of Illyricum. For the regions situated further on, namely all Italy and Sicily, Gaul also and whatever stretches toward the setting of the sun, Spain, Mauretania and Africa, when they had experienced the fury of the war for scarcely two whole first years of the persecution, soon obtained the most present aid of the divine Power and peace, the providence of God, namely, looking to the simplicity and faith of those men. Further, what is never recorded to have happened to the Roman empire before, this then first occurred, beyond the opinion of all: for in this persecution, which has raged in our times, the empire of the Roman world was divided into two parts. Whichever brethren inhabited the one of these, which we designated a little before, enjoyed peace. But as many as lived in the other part of the Roman world underwent innumerable contests from time to time. And in very truth among the holy Martyrs of this period whose birthdays are celebrated in the ecclesiastical calendars, you would hardly find one who suffered after the year 305, unless in the East. Compare the Chronological table of Tillemont In the place above, pp. 809–811..

[6] Notice of the city of Porto Torres. The most celebrated city of Sardinia, which by Ptolemy is called Turris Byssonis, by Pliny Turris Lybissonis, by the anonymous of Ravenna Turris Librisonis, and by Antoninus Verus and also by the author of the Table commonly called Peutinger's simply Turris, was situated on the sea coast, and, having regard to the island, it faced toward the North. It is called a colony by Pliny (which, as Fara has it, is believed to have been settled in Sardinia under Pompey the Great), but by Mela and Strabo it is not even mentioned. It was once quite populous, whence it is numbered among the seventeen more celebrated towns of Sardinia by the same Pliny: but now it is ruined, and nothing else survives but the church, the port and the name Sardinia sacra, p. 138 and following.. It must be observed however that Pliny numbers eighteen towns. Of towns, he says Hist. Nat. book III, ch. VII, Vol. I, p. 161. Paris 1741. In folio., XVIII; and Harduin notes Ibid.: So all the Manuscripts; understand, most celebrated. Writers

Sardinian writers have heaped up many other things about the city of Porto Torres, nor have they spared fictions and fables, among whom Jacobus Pinto holds not the last place; of whom Salvatore Vitale says thus Annales Sardiniæ, in Grævius, the last volume, col. 160.: The Jesuit Jacobus Pinto, led by love of his fatherland, raises to the sky the city of Porto Torres, as the chief one, and as if the golden region of Logudoro. What wonder? One must fight for the fatherland. Vitale then extols the praises of the city of Cagliari and at the same time attacks and refutes in set form the sayings of Pinto Ibid., cols. 160–164.. Hence Mattei in the place cited: About those who first inhabited this (city), and founded it with laws, and gave it its name, the Sardinians dispute many things, but in my opinion supported by no reason. What seems to come nearest the truth Cantel concludes in brief in these words Metropolitanarum urbium historia civilis et ecclesiastica, p. 486. Paris 1685.: The name was given to the province of Porto Torres, if we believe Sardinian authors, from Towers, because the Tyrrhenians, inhabitants of the region, built houses in the form and manner of towers. It is also called Logudoro, as if the golden place: (the origin of this name is variously given by various people, but up to now it remains obscure Dizionario geog. di Sardegna vol. 9, p. 5 following.) for that tract is both pleasant and fertile. The capital of the province was once Turris, either Bissonis or Libissonis; and Turris Libissonis, as it pleases Pinto, means the same as the Augusta or "Regia" of Hercules the Libyan. Formerly far inferior to Cagliari both in dignity and in size, after the year 1000 it was nearly equal to it in both glories. At length, on account of the troubles of wars, the citizens gradually began to slip away, and betook themselves to Sassari (it was a neighboring town). Whence it came about that a little later the Archbishop, Canons, Magistrates also migrated there, and in the year 1444 Eugene IV transferred the rights of the see of Porto Torres to Sassari, which grew so from the ruins of Turres that, a rival of the city of Cagliari, it seeks an equal degree of honor with it. From what has been said Harduin must be corrected, who intimates that Sassari is to be sought in that place where Turres once was: now, he says Pliny, Hist. Nat., vol. I, p. 161. Note 8., Sassari is believed to be there; whereas it is distant from there toward the south about twelve thousand paces Sardinia sacra, p. 140.; others, I should think less rightly, have eight thousand Orlendi, Orbis sacer et profanus, p. 2649.. Nor did Cantel rightly note the year of the translation of the see. Compare the following number. It will help to have added some things from the great geographical Dictionary of the kingdom of Sardinia. Of the affairs of the people of Porto Torres under the emperors we know nothing, because no mention of them occurs in historical monuments worthy of credit. The city, occupied by the Saracens, remained in their power up to the beginning of the 11th century; then it was snatched from them by the king or judge of Logudoro, who thereafter was often accustomed to stay there, and who moreover procured for the bishop of Porto Torres the dignity of metropolitan. From this it arose that the Judicate of Logudoro began more commonly to be called that of Porto Torres. The history of the city of Porto Torres has its end around the middle of the 15th century: for then, the few inhabitants who had remained after the year 1438 having crossed to Sassari, it was almost utterly deserted Dizionario geogr. di Sardegna, vol. XV, p. 659 and following.. The present state of the village municipality is thus described Ibid., p. 644 and following.: Turris or Turres (Portotorre), a town (borgo) of Sardinia, situated on the northern shore of the island, in the province of Sassari, lat. 40° 91' 50", western long. (regarding the meridian of Cagliari) 0, 43'. It is divided as it were into two parts: one maritime, in which the port is found; the other called after St. Gavinus, which is about half a mile distant from the port, and is situated on a small hill. The rest, if you please, see in the esteemed Dictionary, under the word Portotorre. And these are the things which it has been permitted to bring forward, partly with probability, partly with certainty, about the beginnings and vicissitudes of the city, once populous and illustrious, but now almost ruined. But we must treat a little more broadly of its see, first episcopal and afterwards metropolitan and primatial, and of its first prelates, among whom SS. Gavinus and Protus are numbered by some:

[7] On the episcopal churches in Sardinia Most derive the origin of the Christian religion in Sardinia from the age of the apostles, one or two of whom are said to have preached there. Commonly also in the catalogues, both of Cagliari and of Porto Torres, St. Clement, afterwards Roman pontiff, comes in first place among the bishops. But these things rest on no suitable testimony, indeed among sensible men they are reckoned among fables Mattei, p. 142.. But it is established by certain documents that at the beginning of the 4th century two churches existed in Sardinia, namely that of Cagliari and that of Fausania or Forum Trajani. The matter is also clear that in the 5th century four were numbered, namely besides the two aforesaid, that of Porto Torres and that of Sulci, whose bishops assembled at Carthage by order of Huneric, king of the Vandals Ibid., p. 51.. In the age of St. Gregory the Great (he sat from the year 590 to the year 604) there seem to have been seven altogether. For he writes to six bishops of Sardinia, whom he calls each by name, and exhorts them not to go out of the Island without the good leave of the archbishop of Cagliari. Le Cointe indeed suspects that some of them had their see in Corsica; but, Mattei adds, I shall demonstrate at length that this is false. Toward the end of the 9th century again only four are found, the same as in the 5th century. For Sardinia, already from the end of the 7th century, lay open to the hostile incursions of the Saracens, to whom it fell almost perpetually as prey up to the beginning of the 11th century; so that Mattei doubts Ibid., p. 52. whether in the tenth century there were any episcopal sees in Sardinia. Moroni reports that the Saracens dominated in Sardinia from the year 833 to the year 1051; then, conquered by the Pisans and Genoese, they were expelled from the island Dizionario, under the word Sassari. Compare Orlendi, p. 2602.. The Saracens being ejected after the beginning of the 11th century, the number of churches was increased, so much so that in the following century there were three metropolitan sees (Cagliari, Porto Torres and Arborea) and fifteen episcopal sees Sard. sacr., p. 54 and following.; which lasted up to the end of the 15th century or the beginning of the 16th century. Afterwards the number was greatly diminished: for, suitable revenues being lacking, many churches were united either to metropolitan sees or to a nearer see. Mattei adds Ibid., p. 55.: In these times, that is, at the middle of the 18th century, there are seven churches in Sardinia, namely Cagliari, Porto Torres, Arborea, Metropolitans; Rosano, Ampurias, Alghero and Ales or Usellus, suffragans. In our days the same three metropolitan sees survive, namely Cagliari and Porto Torres, both of them primatial, and Arborea, whose bishop resides at Oristano. Cagliari has three suffragans, Porto Torres four, Arborea one, from the united sees of Usellus and Terralba [Gerarchia della Santa Chiesa esposta per cura del cav. Gerolamo Petro. Rome 1851.].

[8] and specifically on the see of Porto Torres as suffragan, But as regards specifically the church of Porto Torres, of this See, says Cantel Page 486., I have scarcely anything certain to write: so various and uncertain are the things put forth by Sardinian authors. Dionisio Bonfant writes that it was instituted under Symmachus in the fifth century: Francesco de Vico and Jacobus Pinto (little reliable writers, as we have seen) and others, who bestow primacy on the see of Porto Torres over that of Cagliari, would have it erected by the apostles, and that Clement presided over it. How false they are in their opinion is clear from the letter of St. Gregory the Great, by which it is expressly established that Marinian of Porto Torres, no less than the other bishops of Sardinia, obeyed Januarius of Cagliari. Hence Cantel adds: Turris therefore was not the capital of Sardinia, nor was the bishop of Porto Torres ever Primate of Sardinia; but a mere bishop; which however must be understood of a Primate properly so called; for, as we shall say below, today the archbishop of Porto Torres has the title of Primate equally with the one of Cagliari. From which it follows moreover that the words: but a mere bishop, to be true, must be referred to the age before Gregory VII, since by this pontiff, if not even a little earlier, the see of Porto Torres was raised to the dignity of a Metropolitan. In the judgment of Mattei Sardinia sacra, p. 144., the first bishop of Porto Torres about whom there can be no rightful doubt is Felix. He is listed among those bishops who in the year 484 were called to Carthage by the king of the Vandals (Huneric), and afterwards were driven into exile. Cantel hesitated a little, for he says Metropolitanarum etc., p. 144.: Whom (Felix), however, unless the authority of Sirmond stood in the way, I should call an African. But this is quite otherwise, Mattei retorts Sardinia sacr., p. 144., since Felix of Turres is numbered by Victor of Vita not among the African but among the Sardinian bishops. It should be observed however that Victor makes no mention of Felix; but his name is found among the bishops of the island of Sardinia in the Notice of the Provinces and cities of Africa, which Sirmond first brought to light, and which Chifflet afterwards attached to book IV of the Vandal Persecution. Surely this notice, by the consent of all, is a most precious monument of antiquity, yet it is not established that it was written by Victor. Compare the Patrology of Migne Vol. LVIII, cols. 267 and 276.. For the rest, before Felix there are cited in the Catalogues St. Clement; St. Gavinus about the year 98, but the Roman Rota defined that he was only a martyr, as I shall render at more length below; St. Protus, who we have seen was only a presbyter; Protagenes, whom Mattei assigns to the see of Cagliari; Gaudentius, but he is to be numbered among the Africans; the same is the case with Samsucius, to whom Felix is written as successor Sardinia sacr., pp. 142–144..

[9] Some centuries later Turris was made a metropolis: by which Pontiff, says Cantel Metropolitanarum etc. p. 488., I would not dare to affirm: then as metropolitan, that it took place before the age of Gregory VII is certain. For which assertion indeed he adds no reason. Mattei thinks otherwise, where he treats of Constantine, sixth in order after Felix as bishop of Porto Torres: Pope Gregory VII in the year 1073, staying at Capua, proclaimed him (Constantine) archbishop of this see (of Porto Torres), and he is the first who is certainly known to have been adorned with the title of Metropolitan Mattei, Sardinia sacr., p. 146.. Canon Bima, in his Chronological Series of the archbishops and bishops of the kingdom of Sardinia, cited by Moroni, asserts that this took place in that very year but under Simon, Constantine's predecessor, and accordingly he holds the latter to be the second Archbishop of Porto Torres, on the witness of the aforesaid Moroni [Dizionario di erudizione storico-ecclesiastica; under the word Sassari. Vol. LXI, p. 230.]. This then seems beyond controversy, that the see of Porto Torres was enhanced with the Metropolitan honor in the 11th century, and that finally in the middle of the 15th century it was translated to Sassari.

[10] and translated to Sassari in the 15th century. Since the citizens of Porto Torres, as is found in Cantel

Metropolitanarum etc., p. 489, and the inhabitants of that tract, wearied with the troubles of wars, were slipping away, some to one place and some to another, and many were betaking themselves to Sassari, Dorgodorus, archbishop of Porto Torres (he died around the end of the 13th century), began to build a palace there and often to live there. There also gradually migrated both clerics and magistrates, until in the year 1442 Pietro Spano (the archbishop) obtained from Eugene IV that the see of Porto Torres and all its rights should be transferred to Sassari. A twofold condition was however added: one, that the metropolitan should retain the name of Porto Torres; the other, that on fixed days he should betake himself to Turris together with the clergy and carry out sacred rites, so that the dignity of that basilica might be provided for in some way. Cantel errs by one year. Spano was indeed made bishop in the year 1422; but the Translation of the see falls in the year 1441, as is expressly held by Mattei Sardinia sacr., p. 162., Salvatore Vitale, who sets down in part the letters of Eugene IV Grævius, the last volume, col. 33., Orlendi Orbis sacer et profanus, p. 2653., Moroni Dizionario, in the place above, p. 231. and Casalis in the geographical Dictionary Dizionario vol. XV, p. 660.. Today four suffragan churches are subject to the Metropolitan of Porto Torres: Alghero, Ampurias united with Tempio, Bisarcio and Bosa Gerarchia etc., p. XXII..

[11] Neither St. Gavinus is to be numbered among the bishops of Porto Torres, We have said that Felix is the first bishop who is proved by certain testimony to have sat at Turres; but that many others before him are recorded in the Catalogues, among whom St. Gavinus and St. Protus. And the former comes second in order, or first after St. Clement; St. Protus next after St. Gavinus, yet so that more than a century and a half intervenes between the two: since the latter is marked about the year 118, the former about the year 290 Sardinia sacr., p. 142 and following.; no one between them is cited either in Mattei or in Moroni. From which it manifestly follows that the one neither was nor could have been the Companion of the other in the passion. But whether, according to the mind of the writers who wove the Catalogues, St. Gavinus of whom we treat on this day is meant, or the other, of whom memory is made on the 30th of May, I for my part would not say. But it matters little, since the episcopate of neither is proved from ancient documents, rather the contrary follows. And first indeed Orlendi notes generally Orbis sacer et profanus, vol. V, p. 2650.: Although the episcopal see of Porto Torres is of most ancient origin … yet both the names and sincere monuments of its early bishops are lacking. Moreover, contrary to the credit of the Roman martyrology, says Cantel Metropolitanarum urbium historia, p. 488., they number SS. Gabinus and Protus among the bishops of Porto Torres, neither of whom is said to have been a bishop; the former not even a priest. We have seen above at n. 3 that in the Roman Martyrology St. Protus is expressly called a presbyter and St. Januarius a deacon. And certainly in our Acts it is said: Gavinus, a most noble soldier. He, since he was most approved in the worship of the gods, had Saints Proptus and Januarius committed to him by the governor Barbarus, to keep them in the tightest custody. Finally, converted by the holy Martyrs during their passion, he was baptized in his own blood. The same is drawn out from the Martyrdom of St. Saturninus in Mombritius, which Tillemont judges older than our Acts Mémoires, vol. V. and of better note, yet not very sincere. St. Saturninus contended under the emperors Diocletian and Maximian, under the same governor Barbarus, who, while he was strictly searching for Christians, and ordering those found to be presented to him by his ministers, there were not lacking two men hostile to the Christian name and serving profane idols, who said that Protus, Januarius and Gavinius were Christians in the same municipality; whom the same governor Barbarus ordered to be brought to him by his officers. And when Protus, Januarius and Gavinus, the holy martyrs, stood in his sight, being questioned by him, having laid down the confession of Jesus Christ the Son of God, they consummated their martyrdom Mombritius, vol. II, fol. 248.. In these things there is surely nothing which indicates in the least that any of them was a bishop.

[12] as the Roman Rota also decreed, For which reason the Roman Rota wished St. Gavinus (this one only was in question) to be struck out, defining that he was only a martyr Sard. sac. d. 143.. Namely, after the Rota, before Montmann of good memory, decided on the 27th of November last (the year 1637), in the cause pending over the primacy of the island and kingdom of Sardinia between the archbishops of Cagliari, Porto Torres and Arborea, that the see of Cagliari is proved the more ancient from this chief foundation, that in the council of Arles, celebrated in the year 314, Quintius or Quintianus, prelate of the church of Cagliari, took part; the archbishop of Porto Torres, to refute this inescapable truth of the said council, gave articles to be proved by witnesses from public voice and fame: first, that the city of Porto Torres, as being nearest to Italy and to the city of Rome among the others of Sardinia, in almost the very beginning of the nascent church was sprinkled with the blood of martyrs under the emperors Trajan and Hadrian, and afterwards under Diocletian and others, and that at the same time and before it had bishops; second, that St. Gabinus, who suffered martyrdom under Hadrian, was bishop of Porto Torres in the year 120 from the Lord's Nativity, and thus that from that time the church of Porto Torres was already erected as a cathedral; third, that among the other bishops of Porto Torres in the year 300 there was one named Gaudentius. These articles having been considered by the Lords, since the question was of proving a fact more than a thousand five hundred years back, beyond the memory of men and outside all memorable limits, they said that they were not to be admitted. Because, since in all the martyrologies SS. Gabinus and Crispulus are inscribed simply as martyrs, and the martyrologies are sufficiently exact in setting down who were bishops and martyrs and who simply martyrs; and since the gravest writers who have collected Lives of the Saints have not dared to write Lives of SS. Gabinus and Crispulus (Compare n. 1 and 2.); it is an evident sign that they found nothing canonical beyond what the ancient martyrologies say [Sac. Rotæ Romanæ Decisiones selected by Paolo Rossi. Part VIII, Decision LX, p. 112. Venice, 1716.]. There follows a quite prolix dissertation on the older and classical Martyrologies, in which St. Gabinus is nowhere named a prelate. And it is added: To confirm this truth it serves very much that in more modern martyrologies, under the same day, the 3rd before the Kalends of June, that is, the 30th of May, St. Gabinus is inscribed in the very same words mentioned above, namely: At Turres in Sardinia, of the holy martyrs Gabinus and Crispulus. So in the martyrology of the order of Preachers, so in the martyrology of Francesco Maurolico, so in the martyrology of Galesini, etc. The sentence of the Holy Rota therefore comes back to this, that a proof sought from fame is by no means to be admitted; but that one must stand by the clear testimonies of the Martyrologists. And so Porto Torres lost its cause. The Decision is noted as given: Monday, 14 June 1638.

[13] nor more probably St. Protus either. Nor do stronger arguments militate for the episcopal dignity attributed to St. Protus, who in the Acts edited by Giovanni Arca in the year 1598 is expressly called a presbyter, as also in the Roman martyrology. It is certain moreover that during the second finding of the holy Patrons (of which we shall speak in the following §), made in the year 1614 by the Rev. Lord Manca de Cedrelles, archbishop of Porto Torres, only this inscription was found, not a little corroded indeed, but sedulously and solicitously restored by men skilled in such things, at the archbishop's request: Bones of blessed Gavinus and of his companions St. Protus and St. Januarius, martyrs; so that it must be judged that to those men there appeared no trace at all of either stroke or abbreviation by which it could be judged indicated that the holy martyr Protus was a bishop. On the witness of Pietro Martini Storia eccles. di Sardegna, vol. I, p. 31., Machin, archbishop of Cagliari from the year 1621 to the year 1640, relates in his Defense of the Primacy of the archbishop of Cagliari, ch. 18, that he acted against the archbishop of Sassari in the sacred Congregation of the Roman Inquisition concerning the episcopate of St. Protus; and that the sacred Congregation gave on the 12th of July 1637 a decree by which it is sanctioned that the holy Martyr is to be painted with the insignia of the presbyterate only, and that one must stand by the Roman martyrology. Nevertheless at the third finding in the year 1848 (of which again below) there was found a small casket of relics of that holy Martyr, marked with these words: S. PROTVS M. EPs St. Protus, martyr, bishop, which seems to me more likely to have been put there after the second finding in the year 1614. But on the other hand in the Report made about this finding by the aforesaid archbishop, it is said Il mese di Octobre, p. 83 and following.: Among the ashes of St. Protus, martyr and bishop, was found his pectoral cross, which he was accustomed to wear. And the cross was of copper; on one side bearing engraved images of our Lord Jesus Christ, SS. Peter and Paul and the four Evangelists; and their names inscribed in Greek letters; on the other side was seen an image of the most blessed Virgin with this title: Mother of God. Inside, mingled with the copper rust, were dusts, as it seemed, from the wood of the Holy Cross and from relics of the Holy Apostles and Evangelists, whose names were read engraved on the copper Cross. Yet I should not think that the opinion of the prelacy of St. Protus was first born then, which I judge older than the 17th century, although not sufficiently founded, indeed false: for the rest, as will be clearly established from the proceedings of the third Finding, St. Protus is today held in the church of Porto Torres to be bishop and martyr, and is venerated as such.

[14] The Acts, The Acts of SS. Gavinus, Protus and Januarius, as also the History of the first Finding of the holy Bodies, which, treading in the footsteps of our predecessors, we give below from Giovanni Arca, do not seem much older than the 15th and 16th centuries, in which there flourished Antonio Cano and Salvatore Alepus, both archbishops of Porto Torres, each of whom Fara and the same Giovanni Arca testify wrote about our holy Martyrs; and we also, at the foot of the History of the first Finding, shall extract something from Alepus's Homily on the dedication of the church and the translation of the holy Patrons. Other sources from which Arca intimates that he drew are a manuscript Codex of the church of Porto Torres (Fara also notes the same) and master Gribaldus (Gazano writes Grimaldus); I should not think that he greatly preceded the aforesaid bishops in age; indeed he perhaps lived after them. Compare Gazano Vol. I, p. 133 and following. Compare.. However this may be, from sources of this kind, indicated in a vague and uncertain manner, we judge that the circumstances of the martyrdom are not sufficiently solidly proved, especially those which, as is usual in apocrypha, present a prodigious and perpetual presence of the divine Power. The replies and prayers of the Martyrs to the governor are very long, so that they appear drawn from the writer's store, and not to have proceeded from the mouth of the saints. But no one would readily call the martyrdom itself into doubt, having regard to the constant and most ancient tradition of the church of Porto Torres,

remarkably strengthened by the testimony of many Hieronymian martyrologies (on which see n. 3), especially that of Antwerp, which, as we have pointed out above in the place cited, was written, in the judgment of Sollerius, at the beginning of the eighth century. It is surely most ancient by the vote of all. Rosweyde found it in the Charterhouse of Trier; and it is called interchangeably that of Antwerp, because it was for the greater part engraved on plates in this city by the effort and industry of Moretus; that of Echternach, because it was written in that place; that of St. Willibrord, because it was in use by this holy man Compare Florentini, p. 32.. But if it was written at Echternach at the beginning of the 8th century, it is plain of itself that it was transcribed from an older copy. From which it follows how high that most certain testimony on the passion of the holy Martyrs of Porto Torres ascends. Nor must it be passed over that some authority is won for the Acts from the fact that they intimate quite manifestly that SS. Protus and Januarius did not consummate their martyrdom on the same day as St. Gavinus: for this is expressly taught by the Hieronymian Martyrologies cited at n. 3, in which St. Gavinus is marked on the 25th, the two Companions on the 27th of October.

§ II. On the first and second Finding of the relics of SS. Gavinus, Protus and Januarius. The history of the former Finding suspect on many counts; the second Finding took place in the 17th century under the episcopate of the Rev. Lord Manca de Cedrelles.

The history of the first Finding Celebrated among the peoples of Sardinia are the three findings or recognitions of the holy martyrs Gavinus, Protus and Januarius. The first is referred to the beginning of the 6th century, but wrongly, as we shall see; the second took place in the 17th century, namely in the year 1614; the third, finally, in our days, in the year 1848. We must speak of each specifically, not because all shine with the same marks of truth and sincerity, but because they are related and described by older Sardinian writers and rest on a long-standing tradition of the venerable church of Porto Torres, or were carried out with such solemnity that of themselves they hold no lowest place in the ecclesiastical history of that island. The first we shall edit at the foot of this Commentary from the book on the Saints of Sardinia of Giovanni Arca, who wrote in the 16th century, and who testifies that he faithfully drew his narrative from Ancient monuments of the church of Porto Torres itself, in manuscript and in print Book II, p. 27.. It will accordingly be enough to have presented the affair, as it is said to have been done, here briefly or in abridgment. About the year 474 of our era Comita the Judge lay ill with a grave and incurable disease in his Castle of Ardara, nine leagues distant from Turres. He had recourse to St. Gavinus. The blessed Martyr appeared to him in sleep, admonishing him to rise quickly and make for the Port of Turres, and there on the Mount called Agellus to build a church to the memory of himself and his companions Protus and Januarius, because their relics lay there laid up and unknown. The pious prince was obedient to these words, and suddenly put his hand to the work; and a few years later there was seen built that magnificent basilica which we still see and admire today, thirteen whole centuries having elapsed since its building, in which Sardinia was more than once most foully laid waste by the Vandals, Saracens and other enemies of the Christian name Ibid. Compare Il mese di Ottobre, pp. 43 and 44.. This work being completed, the Judge became solicitous for the relics of the Saints… He made for the promontory of Balai, surrounded by an immense multitude of priests and people. After three days given to prayer, the burial place of the holy Martyrs was revealed by a heavenly omen. For incense being cast into the fire, the smoke was not borne on high, as is usual by its lightness, but flew in a straight course toward that part in which the monument of the Martyrs lay hidden. There, accordingly, they ran, glad at heart; workmen being engaged, they turned over every stone, and no place was left untouched, until they found an ancient tomb. As soon as this lay open, the bodies of the three Martyrs poured forth a most sweet odor… You would have seen no limb fallen from the body, no nail from the fingers, no hair from the head… Gavinus held the middle place between his two Companions; from which the custom has prevailed that he is perpetually painted between Prothus and Januarius in the form of an armed horseman Arca, in the same place, p. 23.. Finally they were laid up in the new church. Not so long after, on the death of Comita the Judge, his son Orgodorius or Torquitorius Gumnale succeeded, heir of his father's virtue and piety, who caused the church built by his father to be dedicated with solemn pomp Ibid.. It was consecrated on the fourth day of May of the year 517, as appears from an epigraph placed above the door of the church Sardinia sacra, p. 139.. A Cardinal was delegated to Sardinia by the Pontiff of that age. There came with him the archbishop of Pisa. The bodies of the Saints were publicly canonized at that door of the church which faces East. From which there arose thereafter the religious custom that, remaining always closed, it lies open and unsealed only in certain years, with such a concourse of Sardinians as is wont to be made to the city of Rome, when the sacred doors are opened Arca, p. 26.. They also asked of the Cardinal legate that, using the faculty which he drew from the supreme pontiff for the consecration of the church, he would heap upon that same church the gift of indulgences. The legate gladly and copiously satisfied the petition. There were present at this consecration fifteen bishops Ibid..

[16] is little to be trusted; And this is the sum of the narrative of the most celebrated Finding of the holy bodies among the people of Porto Torres and Sassari. But is it worthy of credit? Let us hear Gazano before all. Arca, and with him de Vico, rely chiefly on two testimonies in assigning the consecration of the basilica to the beginning of the 6th century; namely on a manuscript codex of the church of Porto Torres, which is called by the Sardinians a condague (by which word are commonly designated ancient manuscript codices of churches, etc., written in the Sardinian language Grævius, volume XV, col. 246. — Gazano, vol. I, pp. 361, 365, 395.) and on an inscription which, according to some, was read on the front of the basilica, according to others in its interior, but which today no longer appears in the one place or the other Gazano, in the same place, p. 364.: The church of St. Gavinus of Turres was consecrated on the 4th of May. In the year of the Lord 517. Now it will surely occur to no one that this inscription was put up in the very year of the consecration; nor is it proved ancient from elsewhere. Gazano supposes that it should be referred to the year 1517, and thus that the sign of the Thousand was omitted, as, he says Ibid., p. 365., is customary even today among some. I do not think there is any need to dwell on these things longer. As regards the manuscript codex or condague, the very Sardinian idiom in which it is written sufficiently declares, in the judgment of the same Gazano, that it is the offspring of a far later age. The Sardinian language, he says, which is used in the codex, consists of some ancient Sardinian, Latin, Spanish and Italian words; let the inhabitants of this country judge at what time an idiom of that sort began to be in use. Moreover the author of the condague supposes that the island, while the church was being built, was subject to the Romans, while it is most certainly established that the Vandals occupied it at the beginning of the 6th century. Gazano explains these things at length in the same place; read him if you please. Muratori also asserts generally Antiquitates medii ævi. Diss. 32, vol. II, col. 1076. that there is no history of Sardinia and Corsica at his disposal, composed by any learned writer, which would pursue the ancient affairs of those islands from documents and old monuments in the excellent way that would be needed. Surely since Muratori's death many men have merited splendidly of the historical subject in Sardinia; among whom stand out Father Mattei, Gazano, Cambiagi, Manno, Pietro Martini, Albert de la Marmora, Goffredo Casalis, Vittorio Angius; but all these either are silent about the monuments cited by Arca and de Vico, or hold them as of little use for creating belief, or reject them as altogether spurious and fictitious. Nor must it be concealed that there are many things in the narrative of both which can by no means be reconciled with the rest of history.

[17] [for under the rule of the Vandals there could not have been room for such a solemnity;] And first of all it may at least be doubted whether at the beginning of the 6th century there could have been room for so solemn a translation or consecration, since at that period the whole of Sardinia groaned, subject to the Vandals, infected with the Arian poison. For it is agreed among all that Sardinia was conquered and devastated by the Vandals in the 5th century. Writers contend only about the years, both of the first incursion and of the complete occupation; some would have it that they broke in a little after the year 429, in which these barbarians obtained Africa; others attach the first invasion to the year 462, and the occupation to the year 471; others finally put other numbers, but little different from the aforesaid. This is certain, that in the year 484 Sardinia was numbered as the seventh province of the Vandal kingdom. This domination or tyranny lasted for almost a whole century, namely up to the year 534, when Belisarius, the barbarians being overcome and laid low, restored the island, in the reign of Justinian, to the emperors of the East. Which things, rendered here in a brief abridgment for our purpose, are reported most clearly in the great geographical Dictionary of the kingdom of Sardinia [Dizonnario degli stati del re di Sardegna vol. XIX bis, p. 595 and following. Turin, 1849.], likewise in Moroni Moroni vol. LXI, p. 119. Venice, 1853. and others, both older and more recent [Orlendi, Orbis sacer et profanus vol. V, p. 2600 and following. — Mattei, Sardinia sacr., p. 3 and following. — Art de vérifier les dates p. 359, etc., where it treats of the kings of the Vandals. — Gazano, Storia di Sardegna, vol. I, p. 229 and following. — Albert de la Marmora, Voyage en Sardaigne, vol. I, p. 28. Paris and Turin, 1839. Etc.]. Since therefore the cathedral of Porto Torres began to be built, if any credit is to be given to the monuments brought forward by Arca and de Vico, about the year 474 by Comita, Judge of Logudoro, admonished in sleep by St. Gavinus to accomplish this, and was completed by Dorgodorius, who succeeded Comita, and was solemnly consecrated in the year 517 Compare Sardinia sacr., p. 139.; it is clear that all these things are to be assigned to the age of the Vandals, and indeed under Thrasamund, who reigned from the year 496 to the year 523, by far the most hostile to the orthodox Art de vérifier les dates p. 359., whom Mattei also deservedly calls most wicked Sardinia sacr., p. 46.. And Victor of Tunnuna in the Chronicle at the year 497 Migne, Patr., vol. LXVIII, col. 948.: Guntamund, king of the Vandals, having died at Carthage, Thrasamund reigns 27 years 4 months. And he, full of the Arian insanity, persecutes the catholics. He closes the churches of the catholics, and sends into exile in Sardinia from every African church 120 bishops (some have more, others fewer). Victor flourished around the middle of the 6th century. His chronicle is highly esteemed among all the learned as regards the truth of events; but in its chronological notes it has been disfigured, more probably by errors of the scribes Ibid., col. 939.. Of

the persecution stirred up under Thrasamund compare Ruinart's commentary on the history of the Vandal Persecution Ibid., vol. LVII, col. 420 and following.. Surely no one would readily persuade himself that under such a tyranny there was room for building so magnificent a church and for so solemn a consecration of it.

[18] moreover the things reported of the Judges Comita and Orgodorius are false: Add that the things asserted of Comita the Judge and his successor Orgodorius Gumnale are not proved. That before the tenth century, says Father Mattei Sardinia sacr., p. 24., there were in Sardinia Judges (that is, princes or kings) is most certainly established from St. Gregory the Great and Anastasius the Librarian. And in very truth he writes thus, book V, Letter 41 Migne, Patr., vol. LXXVII, col. 768., to Constantia Augusta: When I had learned that in the island of Sardinia there were many pagans, and that they still attended the sacrifices of idols after the depraved custom of paganism … I sent there one of the bishops of Italy, who reported to me a sacrilegious matter, that those who sacrifice to idols in it pay a fee to the JUDGE, that they may be allowed to do this. And when some of them had been baptized and had now ceased to sacrifice to idols, there is still exacted by the same JUDGE of the island, even after baptism, that fee which they had before been accustomed to give for sacrificing to idols. So Gregory, who sat at Rome from the year 590 to the year 604. There are also extant two letters of Pope Leo IV addressed to the Judge of Sardinia Ibid., vol. CXV, col. 673.. Leo IV sat from the year 847 to the year 855. Anastasius likewise, in his Nicholas I (pope from the year 858 to 867), says Ibid., vol. CXXVIII, col. 1383. that about the year 865 it was reported to him concerning Sardinia that the Judges of the island, with the people subject to their governance, were contracting incestuous and illicit unions with those near them and those akin by blood, as they had been accustomed to do in the times of the lord pope Gregory IV (from the year 827 or 828 to the year 843 or 844). For which reason Nicholas sent vigorous men to call back that same Sardinian people from so great an error, etc. Hence Muratori: These words, he says Antiquitates medii ævi vol. II, col. 1077., prove that even then there flourished in Sardinia princes of the people, and Christians at that, distinguished by the same title of "Judges," which we see preserved in the following centuries (namely under the domination of the Pisans and Aragonese); from which it is natural to conclude that the Saracens, in the lifetime of Nicholas I, had not yet gained possession of the whole of Sardinia Compare Moroni, Dizionario, vol. LXI, p. 121.. In the 6th and 9th centuries, therefore, there were Judges who presided over the Sardinians. But I should think that not even one is known by name from an ancient and credible document. Both those above-named, Comita and Orgodorius, who seem to smack of a far more recent age, are therefore very suspect to me. On which matter it is to be noted that the Pisans, together with the Genoese, having expelled the Saracens, brought the island under their power before the middle of the 11th century. Ibid. Compare Orlendi, vol. V, p. 2604. Sardinia being conquered, and its wicked king (Mugetus of the Saracens), the Pisans gained possession of the whole island, the booty being left to the Genoese (with whom afterwards there was war on more than one occasion), according to what they had agreed between themselves by compact. Then the same Pisans divided it into Dynasties (which are mostly called Judicates): that of Cagliari, of Arborea, of Porto Torres (or of Logudoro Moroni, p. 122.) and of Gallura; and to each was given a particular Judge, there being no reason to bring into controversy that he was also called king. So Father Mattei Sardinia sacr., p. 8., who in another place wove their catalogues, yet with this prior admonition Ibid., p. 24.: I do not assume or claim so much as to judge that this series of Judges will be entire and complete in every part. For the ancient history of the aforesaid island (he means that which pertains to the events of the 11th century; thus it holds with much stronger right for older centuries) is so entangled that even Muratori himself confessed that it was little clear to him. Certainly what regards the origin and beginnings of the Judicates is most intricate; whence there is great discord among writers, especially the older ones. In our days the question has been more elucidated by the studies of the men whom we have praised above. Among these Goffredo Casalis and Vittorio Angius, using the work of their predecessors, especially of the learned Manno, have treated at length of this subject in the geographical-historical Dictionary of the kingdom of Sardinia; which work, begun to be published in the year 1833, was completed in the year 1856, and consists altogether of twenty-eight volumes in octavo. What pertains to the island of Sardinia taken generally was edited in two whole volumes, in the years 1851 and 1853.

[19] for although the origin of the Judicates is obscure, About to treat of the Judicates, they begin with these words: Few notices, and these obscure and not rarely also uncertain, have come down to us in the histories of neighboring regions with which the Sardinians had some dealings; likewise in some charters or documents of churches and monasteries, and in the archives of the Pisans and Genoese, and finally in certain Traditions, which however writers of later ages have used indiscriminately without sufficient selection. The chief true monuments, which were surely many, perished during the incursions of the barbarians; so that, if the learned man Baron Manno had not brought a torch to such great darkness, we should have been able to discern scarcely anything of that period of Sardinian history Dizionario geog. vol. VIII, p. 66, under the word Giudicati.. And Casalis subjoins in the same place: The Pisan historians, and after them many others, claimed that this form of government was first introduced by their people, after they had snatched the island from the Saracens; and that the first Judges were patrician men who had set out from Pisa. But not so long ago Baron Manno, in book VIII, under the years 847–54, solidly demonstrated that Judges existed in Sardinia already from the 9th century; indeed even earlier. For Angius, who wrote the things pertaining to the general history of the island, reports that Sardinia became independent around the end of the 7th century, more probably a little before the year 690, by the effort of Jaletus (Gialeto Ibid., vol. XIX bis, p. 610.); and that he divided Sardinia fourfold, namely into provinces or Judicates: that of Plumino or Cagliari, of Arborea, of Logudoro, afterwards of Porto Torres, and of Gallura; that he reserved the first for himself, and set his brothers over the three others Ibid., p. 611.. But it is asked whether Jaletus is to be reputed the first author of those Judicates? Vittorio Angius replies Ibid., volume XVIII ter, page 33.: I for my part judge that this division is earlier than the age of Jaletus; and I think that under the Byzantine emperors the aforesaid provinces existed as the chief parts of the Sardinian dominion, and each of them had its own administrator or rector or Judge, dependent however on the governor of all Sardinia, acting in the emperor's place; and that this division, as already established in the people's custom, was preserved by Jaletus. According to this opinion of Angius, the institution of the Judicates would have to be derived from the time at which Sardinia, the Vandals being ejected, came into the power of the emperors of the East; yet from this it is not, as is clear, proved that there were Judges while the Vandals held the island; rather the contrary must be held. The opinion of Angius is surely favored by the passages recited above from Gregory the Great and Anastasius the Librarian, as also by the letters of Leo IV. Not much different from this opinion is Albert de la Marmora, some of whose words we set down: Having attentively considered, he says Voyage en Sardaigne, p. 36. Paris and Turin, 1839., the political vicissitudes of Sardinia from the age of Justinian up to the Saracen invasion, it is natural to judge that the island was very often left to the will of rectors or governors; and that these gradually obtained dominion each in his own region or Judicate.

[20] it is nevertheless more recent than the domination of the Vandals in Sardinia. Gazano concedes a little less, deriving the origin of the judicates from about the 9th century Storia della Sardegna, vol. I, p. 375. Cagliari, 1777.. And first indeed from a charter of Gonnarius, king or judge of Porto Torres, given in the year 1147 and recited first by Muratori in the Antiquities of the middle age Vol. II, col. 1061., Gazano infers Vol. I, p. 366 and following. that judges certainly reigned in Sardinia at the beginning of the 11th century: for it is said in the charter: I, Gonnarius, by divine dispensation king and lord of the people of Porto Torres, in the twentieth year of our reign proceeding to Jerusalem to visit the holy places, etc. And below Gonnarius says that he confirms whatever my great-great-grandfather King Baraso of glorious memory, and Marianus our grandfather, Constantine also our father, gave to the monastery of Monte Cassino. From these things it follows that Gonnarius began to reign in the year 1127; that his great-great-grandfather was distinguished with the same dignity; whence, in Gazano's judgment, it follows that four kings or judges preceded Gonnarius, namely the great-great-grandfather Baraso, the great-grandfather (he is passed over in the charter, probably, says the esteemed writer, because he had made no gift to the monks of Monte Cassino; but might it not be said by an equal conjecture that he was taken from among the living while his father Baraso still survived?), Marianus and Constantine, who could in order have presided, the four, within the space of one century. Below, the same Gazano judges it proved from Anastasius, a writer, he says, ancient and contemporary, that counts or judges existed in the 9th century. From these things it is sufficiently drawn out that that Comita, to whom the building of the ancient basilica of Porto Torres is assigned, and his successor Orgodorius are far more probably fictitious; both because, as I have noted above, their names are found in no sufficiently suitable monument of antiquity; and because at the time at which the finding of the relics and the consecration of the church took place, Sardinia lay oppressed and crushed under the Vandal yoke.

[21] In the 11th century a Judge named Comita is found, In the Catalogues of Father Mattei, of which we have made mention above, among the Judges or kings of Porto Torres, fourth in order is listed Comita I, designated Judge in the year 1100; two years later he died without sons, says de Vico Sardinia Sacra, p. 33.. In the year 1205 a second Comita occurs Ibid. p. 34.. Likewise I find a Catalogue in the esteemed Dictionary of the kingdom of Sardinia Vol. XVIII ter, p. 81 and following., where the following Judges of Porto Torres are noted from ancient documents: Marianus, 740? Peter, 800? The added sign of interrogation sufficiently indicates that these years are not established; there follow Comita and William XXIII, perhaps around and after the year 990; then Gonnarius and Comita I from the year 1022, and finally another Comita after the year 1205. It would be superfluous to pursue these things further, since it is clear that the name of no Judge who flourished at the beginning of the 6th century has become known. For the rest, in the same Dictionary, one reads Dizionario vol. XIX bis, p. 679. that Comita succeeded Gonnarius after the year 1036, who, as is reported by an ancient Sardinian writer, erected and endowed with royal

munificence the basilica of St. Gavinus, still surviving today, and deposited the relics in the underground sanctuary. I should rather believe that this Comita restored the church and conferred more ample revenues. For the erection of the basilica perhaps long preceded the rule of Comita. The compiler of the Dictionary thus doubts in this place whether the church of Porto Torres was built in the 11th century, which however he had expressly asserted elsewhere in the paragraph on Portotorre Vol. XV, p. 650.: The ancient and primitive Cathedral church probably rose within the circuit of the city of Porto Torres; but the other, built after the Saracens were driven from Sardinia and to be seen up to this day, is said to have been founded by Comita, Judge of Logudoro and Arborea, about the middle of the 11th century; it stood outside the circuit of the walls, and likely in the very place in which the body of St. Gavinus had been deposited after the passion. Although these things, as happens in compilations of this kind, are not fully consistent with themselves, yet they declare that the building of the church can in no way, according to the mind of those writers, be assigned to the 5th and 6th centuries. For the rest, Papebroch, touching on this question incidentally in the Acts of St. George, bishop of Suelli Acta SS. vol. III of April, p. 214., points out that there are those who say that the church in question was first built eight hundred years after the death of the holy Martyr (Gavinus), namely in the 12th century. And Mattei does not seem to disapprove of the words of our learned predecessor, since he recites them without an asterisk Sardinia sacra, p. 140. Note., and otherwise holds the history of the finding of no account.

[22] to whom the building of the basilica seems to be assigned. For the rest, Pietro Martini reports the same in set form Storia eccl. di Sardegna, vol. I, p. 112., accusing de Vico of ignorance, because he assigns to the people of Porto Torres their own judges under the Vandal domination, and finds cardinals at Rome in the 6th century. Then he sets against de Vico Fara, whom you might deservedly call the father of Sardinian history. He published in the year 1580 the first book De rebus Sardois; but he had written three others besides, committed to print only in the year 1835 by the care and diligence of the Marquis Agostino Lascaris di Ventimiglia and of Luigi Cibrario Ibid. preface, p. VIII (2).. Now Fara writes in book II, article on the judges of Porto Torres, that the basilica of St. Gavinus was magnificently erected by Comita, Judge of Porto Torres, a contemporary of Baldus, judge of Gallura, and that the latter was captured in war by Georgia, sister of Comita, a woman of masculine valor. From elsewhere the same Fara teaches, in the same work, article on the Judges of Gallura, that Baldus succeeded Manfred after the middle of the 11th century. It is clear from these things that Comita presided over the judicate of Porto Torres and built the aforesaid basilica as the same century was closing. Martini concludes that every doubt on this question is removed today by the recently edited books of Fara, who, as Manno has it, either had better documents at hand, or if he used the same as de Vico, certainly applied a sounder criticism. Martini adds at the foot of the page that de Vico relies on these three things: namely on an inscription by which the consecration of the church is marked in the year 517; and on another inscription again found on the altar stone: This altar was consecrated on the 4th of May 517; finally on a glass Phial, discovered under the same high altar with the epigram: St. Gavinus of Turres in a White Ampoule 517. It is worthy of remark, moreover, as Martini goes on, that Archbishop Manca Cedrellius and Francisco Bustelga, each in his report on the finding of the holy Martyrs, printed in the year 1615 (at Madrid and Barcelona), are altogether silent about either inscription, declaring only that the antiquity of the basilica is proved from tradition and from an old Codex. Bastelga makes mention of the Phial, but not so Cedrellius.

[23] Whether the history of the finding should be accused of falsity, But from another quarter the often-cited Mattei attacks the history of the Finding. Certainly he could not read without bile these words: A consistory being decreed for them, as the Roman curia is wont in graver matters, a cardinal distinguished in those times, who was said to be of the first men of Italy, was delegated to Sardinia. For he exclaims Sardinia sac., p. 139 (5).: To what purpose at length, good God, was a cardinal sent to consecrate the church of Porto Torres? Could not either the archbishop of Cagliari or another prelate of Sardinia have rendered that solemnity equally splendid? I suppose that no one born will deny it; for it is of proven credit that in those times cardinals were far inferior to bishops in grade… Our Pagi, Preface to the Breviarium pontificum, n. 11 and following, demonstrates that in the 8th century the dignity of cardinals was great, and in the middle of the ninth century even superior to the episcopal. I wonder that these things were brought forward by a learned and prudent man, such as Father Mattei shows himself without controversy, generally, in the Sardinia Sacra. Surely the most noble writers in the church speak otherwise of Cardinals, and think more worthy and at the same time truer things about them. Let Bellarmine stand for all: On the comparison of a cardinal with bishops, he says De Clericis, book I, ch. XVI., authors treat at length … but in this nevertheless almost all agree, that if we consider the power of order, a bishop is greater than a cardinal priest or deacon… For a like reason, if we consider jurisdiction over one's own church, that is, of a bishop over his diocese and of a cardinal over his title or deaconry, a bishop is greater than a cardinal priest or deacon… But if we consider the governance of the universal church, a cardinal priest or deacon is greater than a bishop who is not a cardinal. For simple bishops are never employed in the governance of the universal Church except most rarely… But cardinals are almost daily at hand with the Pontiff, and no business of greater moment is carried out without their counsel. And because hence it comes about that bishops are judged, created, deposed by cardinals, as co-workers of the supreme Pontiff; but not on the contrary cardinals by bishops; for this reason a cardinal absolutely takes precedence of a bishop who is not a cardinal. And since such has been the condition of the cardinals or Roman presbytery already from the cradle of the Church, it follows that they have from the root been superior to bishops in dignity on this account. For which reason the same Bellarmine notes: In the council of Nicaea, at Ephesus, at Chalcedon, in the sixth, seventh and eighth general synods, Roman presbyters sat before bishops: but if it is objected that this was done because they were legates of the supreme pontiffs, we reply that in our cause a cardinal or Roman presbyter was likewise delegated to Sardinia; and that accordingly he borrowed dignity from him in whose name and by whose delegation he was present.

[24] [because the consecration of the basilica is reported to have been done by a cardinal?] But Bellarmine adds that by right or ordinary custom, in the first six hundred or eight hundred years from the founding of the Church, bishops took precedence of cardinals: I admit however, he says, that formerly all bishops were preferred to cardinals, and even that the cardinalate was a step to the episcopate… Afterwards however the order was changed, and cardinals began to be placed before bishops and the episcopate to be a step to the cardinalate. Of which change a twofold reason can be assigned. One, that the election of the supreme Pontiff devolved on the cardinals alone… The other cause is that the cardinals alone began to be at hand with the supreme Pontiff in counsels: for before the cardinals were neither the only nor the chief counselors of the Pontiff; since in the first six hundred or eight hundred years, the supreme Pontiffs, for judging the graver matters of the Church, assembled national councils of the bishops of Italy, in which councils cardinal priests indeed took part, but yet the first place was that of the bishops. This can be recognized from the volumes of the councils, where very many Roman or Lateran councils are found, celebrated from the year of the Lord 300 to 800. Nor was Pagi of another opinion, brought in by Father Mattei as a witness above. For he, having related that Cardinal Anastasius in the Roman council of the year 853 was summoned by three bishops to answer concerning the crimes of which he was said to be guilty, adds Breviarium Pontificum Rom., vol. I, p. XIV. Venice, 1730.: From which it seems to me it can be deduced that cardinals then were equal to patriarchs; and therefore that their dignity was so sublime and eminent that, although the episcopal order or grade, insofar as it is sacramental, has superiority of power over the other priestly orders, yet in the administration by which cardinals assist the supreme Pontiff in ruling the universal church and in defining major causes, their dignity even then was superior to the episcopal and more worthy, since Anastasius, although only a cardinal priest, was nevertheless summoned to the synod by three bishops, as was customarily done in the judgments of patriarchs… It must be said therefore that in the ninth century cardinals were at least equal to bishops [Compare Moroni, Dizionario, vol. IX, p. 278. Likewise Macri, Hierolexicon, vol. I, p. 200. Bologna, 1765.]. And from these things it is sufficiently clear that nothing stands in the way of a cardinal having been sent by the Pontiff in the 6th century to Sardinia, to preside over the consecration at Porto Torres. But since this, from what has been disputed above, is to be referred not to the 6th century but probably to the 11th or 12th century, the difficulty raised by Father Mattei collapses from the foundation. For the rest, the manner of speaking used by Arca certainly betrays an age much more recent than the 6th century.

[25] What about the indulgences granted at It is added in the history of the Finding: The legate copiously satisfies the prayers, granting for all future time from the treasure of the Church, the consecration? on each day of the year 6,360 years of indulgences and 6,360 quarantines, which he willed to be doubled from the Kalends of May up to the Kalends of June, at which time the dedication and consecration of that church is commemorated; and from the 28th day of October up to the octave of All Saints, on which days chiefly the memory and birthday of Saints Gavinus, Prothus and Januarius are commemorated with such great piety that the month of October is called by the name of Gavinus. But Father Mattei remarks on this passage Sardinia sac., p. 139 (5).: As for the indulgences which the good man says were granted on the occasion of the consecration of the church, blind is he who does not perceive that they are fabricated. And in very truth such indulgences (I do not speak of the altogether incredible number of years) as are recorded above at the dedication of the church are not proved to have been granted before the 11th or 12th century. Indulgences, says Eusebius Amort Historia Indulgentiarum, p. 25. Venice, 1738., from the 1st to the 12th century, consisted in the relaxation of some excommunication, or certainly only in some moderation of the penance enjoined by the confessor and the sacred canons. And Papebroch in the Conatus chronico-historicus Acta SS. Propylæum of May, p. 133.: This indeed no one doubts … that the Church had the power of paying them (the penalties due to sins) from the treasury of the merits of Christ and of the Saints, and exercised it in various ways; but that it exercised that power in that form, in favor of certain pious places to be helped or visited by the faithful, we deny can be established by any examples which are older than the 11th century. And in the marginal notes, where the sum of the argumentation is proposed Ibid., p. 132.: Of indulgences such as there (in

the table of the church of SS. Sylvester and Martin) are noted, no one will prove a use in that formula older than the 11th century; and the formula itself scarcely before the 12th century. Similarly also Mabillon in the preface to the fifth Benedictine century Acta SS. Ord. S. Ben., vol. VII, Preface, n. 107 and following.. Muratori agrees Antiquitates medii ævi, vol. V, col. 762.: After the thousandth year of the common era also (perhaps even before), the supreme pontiffs and bishops, whenever some solemn dedication of churches took place, began to remit to the peoples flowing together a part, though a moderate one, of the penitential penalties. And he subjoins a bull of Alexander III, of the year 1177, by which, to all who on the anniversary of the dedication (of the church of St. Mary of Charity at Venice), or three days before, or three days after, shall visit the same … we have thought it good to remit twenty days of the penance enjoined on them. Finally let us hear Benedict XIV, De Synodo dioecesana, book XIII, ch. XVIII, n. 8: Cardinal Tomasi, he says, after he had demonstrated with much erudition … with how great moderation the Roman pontiffs acted in granting indulgences, which they were accustomed to bestow mostly of a few years, wisely concludes that grants of indulgences of thousands of years are incredible and plainly improbable; and all the more because the asserted grants are mostly referred to those times in which the aforesaid moderation chiefly flourished.

[26] How far the history of the first Finding can be admitted. After all this everyone will assent to the following words of Father Mattei: These things being so, I strongly suspect that it is false that the church of St. Gavinus was built in the fifth century of the common era and consecrated in the year 517; even though, on the report of de Vico, the following inscription is read above its door: The church of St. Gavinus of Turres was consecrated on the 4th of May in the year of the Lord 517. But if we admit that the aforesaid church was built at the end of the 11th century, and consecrated at the beginning of the following (which to me is surely not improbable), it will follow that in this respect the history of the first finding is stained with a grave error; and since its credit is also impaired from elsewhere not lightly, for instance from the indulgences granted; and since finally the whole narrative rests on documents either of a more recent age, or of no credit or at least suspect, we must conclude that it bears on its face manifold marks of forgery. Yet I would not deny that the Finding of the relics took place about the 11th century, and that the church of St. Gavinus at Turres was built and consecrated at that time, and that Arca's narrative can be admitted thus far; but as regards the various circumstances of the matter, I would not dare to trust it. So much for the first Finding.

[27] The second Finding The second Finding took place in the year 1614 under the episcopate of Gavino I Manca de Cedrelles, who afterwards published a report in which the series of events during this Finding is presented and explained. Nicolás Antonio in the Bibliotheca Hispana nova mentions this report and sets down its title [Vol. II, p. 359: Relacion de la Invencion de los Cuerpos de los SS. MM. Gabino, Proto y Januario, patrones de la Iglesia Turritana de Sacer (Sassari) en Sardeña, y de otros que se hallaron en el año de MDCXIV. [Account of the Finding of the Bodies of the holy martyrs Gavinus, Protus and Januarius, patrons of the Church of Porto Torres of Sacer (Sassari) in Sardinia, and of others that were found in the year 1614.] Madrid, at the house of Luis Sanchez, 1615.], and asserts that the report was printed in the year 1615, which Father Mattei gives likewise Sardinia Sacr., p. 168.. But the preceding year, namely 1614, is assigned both to the Finding and to the edited Report in the proceedings of the third recognition, of which there will be fuller question below. The booklet of the most reverend prelate Manca I do not have at hand. But its chief part is found in an Italian little work, published seven years ago by the press of Turin, whose title is: The Month of October sacred to the holy martyrs of Porto Torres Gavinus, Protus and Januarius [Il mese di ottobre consecrato alle glorie dei santi Gavino, Proto e Gianuario, martiri Torritani. Turin, 1853.]. From elsewhere, namely from the proceedings of the third Finding or recognition, we know that the report of Lord Manca was translated from Spanish into Italian by the Rev. Lord Giovanni Scarpa, canon of Porto Torres, and put to the press at Sassari in the year 1846, when the Rev. Lord Archbishop Alessandro Varesini was girding himself for investigating the relics of the holy Patrons of his church. For which reason I have no doubt that the things in the aforesaid little work regarding the second Finding were taken from this translation. Nor must it be passed over that the Rev. Lord Canon Scarpa, as delegate of the Rev. Lord Archbishop, contributed a great deal of effort to the recognition of the same sacred pledges in the year 1848. No less credit is thus to be given to the esteemed little work than to the report of Lord Manca itself. These things being set out first, let us explain the second Finding.

[28] carried out in the year 1614. At the beginning of the 17th century Ibid., p. 57 and following. the Lord deigned to illustrate with many prodigies the tomb of the holy Martyrs of Porto Torres. Hence the reverence and confidence of the people in the holy Patrons grew wonderfully. Innumerable benefits were reported to have been conferred from heaven by their pious intercession. Men worthy of credit, and not easily to be deluded by vain images, asserted that on many nights they had seen the church flashing with great light, had heard sweet-sounding harmonies, had perceived the fragrance of a most sweet odor. Moreover St. Gavinus was reported to have appeared repeatedly in military dress and with a gentle face, bestowing present help, and promising greater things for the future. Encouraged by all these things, the Rev. Lord Manca de Cedrelles, archbishop of Porto Torres, having weighed such many and great prodigies, after mature deliberation decided in the year 1614 to recognize the relics and solemnly elevate them. I had (these are the words of the Rev. prelate Manca Ibid., p. 62.) the earth dug up around the high altar, where from time immemorial stood three marble columns, having the height of a man, which the faithful were accustomed to venerate with pious kisses. And there was a report that the sacred treasure lay hidden, laid up in that place, of which the said columns gave the indication. The ground being moved a very little, there appeared traces of a subterranean chapel or oratory, such as are described in Christian antiquities as Confessions or Memorials of martyrs. Further, the aforesaid oratory was buried under earth and great stones, which had before all things to be removed. Above rose the high altar, furnished with a marble slab, ten palms square, one palm high. This being taken away, a little deeper was found the first tomb, which, resting on the altar of the crypt or underground church, lay beneath the high altar. That tomb was handsome and magnificent, of semicircular form, nine palms long, three wide; inside, in mosaic work not to be despised, were shown flowers and other ornaments of that kind, among which two doves and as many lambs, and in the middle a young man of beautiful aspect bearing a lamb on his shoulders. At this sight all were flooded with a sweet feeling of gladness, and this much more when there was found a small marble casket of splendid workmanship, two palms long, about one wide. The ornaments of the casket were almost the same as on the three first columns of the basilica, on which doves and crosses are seen. In the middle of the front of the casket was read the following inscription: O. B. GAII… S. ROTI… S. IAIV. Which strokes, regard being had also to others no longer appearing sufficiently distinctly, some men of the Society of Jesus, skilled in Christian antiquities, judged should be read thus: Bones of blessed Gavinus and of his companions St. Protus and St. Januarius, martyrs. The casket with the holy relics was received with the reverence and veneration that befitted it. Then, as they had begun, they cleared the crypt of rubble, whose floor or pavement gleamed with precious and porphyry marble. Thus far the words of the Rev. prelate Manca de Cedrelles. The author of the little work adds Ibid., p. 68. that the space lying under the high altar had twelve tombs, so disposed and ordered among themselves that you would call them compartments of one and the same reliquary or rather burial place. Then the chief holy pledges found there are marked; and finally there are recorded Ibid., pp. 88, 93, 97, etc. many benefits of healings, etc., conferred from heaven and not without prodigy, some of which are rendered specifically. I shall not say more about this finding, both because, as I have noted, the Report of the Rev. Lord Manca is lacking to me; and because from the following paragraph, where we shall treat of the third Finding, many things pertaining to the second will be elucidated. For the rest, what we have recited above presents its chief part, namely the very Finding of the holy Bodies, and the description of the place in which they rested laid up. I should not think that any papers or schedules or small documents were found in the tomb declaring when and by whom the first deposition of the sacred pledges was made there. I for my part find nothing such in our documents. Below at n. 34 are recited inscriptions certainly put there by the Rev. Manca, as is clear from the Spanish language. I think the same must be said of the Latin ones, at least most of them. Compare n. 13.

§ III. On the third Finding or recognition, carried out in the year 1848. The order in which things were done is described from the Proceedings, approved by the Sacred Roman Congregation. Of the veneration of SS. Gavinus, Protus and Januarius in Sardinia

The third Finding, from the Proceedings approved by the Sacred Congregation. In the forty-eighth year of the current century, the relics of the holy Martyrs were found or recognized for the third time by the Rev. Lord Alessandro Domenico Varesini, archbishop of Porto Torres, primate of Sardinia, who himself deigned in the year 1856 to communicate the instrument or proceedings to the hagiographers. Before we present this, there is to be set down here the decree of the Sacred Congregation of Indulgences and Sacred Relics given on this matter, and submitted to us by the same Rev. Prelate, and it is of this kind: Decree of Porto Torres. Although in the whole dominion of Sardinia, and especially in the province of Porto Torres, there has always shone forth a singular devotion of the faithful of Christ toward their patrons, namely Saints Gavinus, Prothus and Januarius, whose bodies, as ecclesiastical monuments testify, were placed by the Christian inhabitants in a church consecrated in their name; this one thing only remained for increasing the same religion of the faithful toward those Martyrs, namely that the sacred remains of the aforesaid holy Martyrs should be found from the uncertain place in the same church. The present bishop of Porto Torres, therefore, the Rev. Father Lord Alessandro Domenico Varesini, happily accomplished what he had in his wishes; for in the course of the year of salvation one thousand eight hundred and forty-eight, coffins being dug out under the altar of the lower chapel, which stands in the distinguished and very ancient basilica of Porto Torres dedicated to the same holy Martyrs, and all things being observed that were duly to be observed according to the prescriptions both of the Sacred Synod of Trent and of the Decrees of this Sacred Congregation of Indulgences and Sacred Relics, he found the Bodies of the same Saints, distinguished by the proper name of each, and, having found them, authentically recognized them, as is more than sufficiently gathered from the authentic Proceedings exhibited to this Sacred Congregation. For which reason the same Sacred Congregation placed over Indulgences and Sacred Relics has approved the aforesaid Proceedings, and has ordered them to be entered in the Acts of the same Sacred Congregation. Given at Rome from the Secretariat of the aforesaid Sacred Congregation on the 28th of November in the year 1855. G. Cardinal Asquini, Prefect. A. Archpriest Primivalli, Substitute.

[30] [On the 24th of March 1848 the Rev. Lord Giovanni Scarpa, as delegate, visits and recognizes the underground church;] The Proceedings are written in the Italian language, and most diligently and accurately drawn up,

in which is noted in minute detail not only what was done on each of the days on which the recognition was carried out and celebrated, but also what was done at certain hours of each day. But since they are very prolix, we shall recite only the chief parts in full, rendering the rest in summary. The Proceedings begin from the things done on the 24th of March of the year 1848, in the basilica of St. Gavinus at Porto Torres. Since the undersigned Rev. Lord Giovanni Scarpa, canon of the primatial church of Porto Torres, together with the Chancellor, by mandate given them orally by the Rev. Lord Alessandro Domenico Varesini, archbishop of Porto Torres, Metropolitan and primate of Sardinia and Corsica, etc., had betaken themselves to the basilica of the holy martyrs of Porto Torres Gavinus, Protus and Januarius, in order to open the door of the wooden grille existing in the subterranean oratory of the same church; which door had on the 7th of May 1847 been closed by the aforesaid canon Scarpa, as delegate of the aforesaid Prelate, a new key being used for this purpose which the smith Gavino Dessena had made, who also himself on the aforesaid day locked the said door before the two vice-parish-priests Lord Giovanni Sanna and Paolo Pinto, and the senior sacristan Lord Luigi Arru, and also the beneficiaries Lords Giovanni Contini, Gavino Sechi, Antonio Mundula, Giovanni Loriga and Giuseppe Piana; which key the same Lord Canon Scarpa at once received, all the aforesaid men being present; who on this day (24 March) in the morning, there being present the above-cited Chancellor, beneficiaries, two vice-parish-priests, senior sacristan and smith, to Gavino Dessena, all the aforesaid looking on, the same Lord Canon Scarpa, before he opened the door mentioned above, offered the key made by him, by means of which he had locked the said door, asking him whether he recognized the key offered; who, having considered and recognized the key, replied: that it was without doubt the very key which he had made for the aforesaid purpose and by order of the aforesaid Lord Canon Scarpa; and which he had nowhere seen since; which accordingly had never been shown to him at any other time by anyone, as neither to any other of the aforesaid beneficiaries, vice-parish-priests and senior sacristan present. The same Lord Canon Scarpa accordingly, all the above-mentioned men looking on, handed it to the smith to open the aforesaid door, which he also in fact opened. When therefore those two had proceeded together with all those previously named, they first inspected all the seals with their white ties attached to the iron grille of the sanctuary, impressed in red Spanish wax with the heraldic sign of the same Rev. Lord Archbishop; and when they had attentively considered and recognized these seals by the light of four wax candles, and had moreover compared them with the sign itself which the undersigned chancellor was holding in his hand, they found that they were altogether the same seals as had been attached on the said day, and so preserved that from the day on which the impression had been made they had undergone not even the slightest change or disfigurement. And of these things all the men of whom mention is held above give certain and undoubted faith. But since there were accustomed to come from the city of Sassari to this basilica on each of the weeks of Lent three confraternities, namely of the Philippines, of the Bainginians (that is, of St. Gavinus, compare below n. 46 at the end) and of the Servants of the Blessed Mary, in order that each might pray there at night; there was assigned to them this year the oratory, but not the sanctuary, which, as has been said, had been fortified with seals. And in order that all occasion of even the slightest suspicion might be removed, the same Chancellor, by mandate of the Lord Delegate and before all the men named above, attached to the iron grille and middle door three seals of red Spanish wax with a tie likewise red, the same smaller sign of the same aforesaid Archbishop being used. This done, at once and in the sight of all, the door of the wooden grille, through which entrance lies open to the subterranean oratory, was closed by the aforesaid smith Dassena; and the same canon Scarpa, the delegate, received the key from the smith's hand, which he then himself, all the undersigned standing by, handed to the aforesaid two vice-parish-priests and the senior sacristan, on this fixed condition, that when the congregation of the Philippines and the confraternity of the Bainginians, as also of the Servants of the Blessed Mary, were at hand for prayer, and for no other cause, this door should be opened, and after the prayer had been made it should be locked by the same vice-parish-priests and senior sacristan. Which charge indeed they willingly undertaking, they pledged that they would be answerable if anything should be done beyond this. For which reason the present act, on request, was confirmed by the hand of all the aforesaid. (It was signed): Canon Scarpa, delegate. Beneficiary Giuseppe Piana. Beneficiary Gavino Sechi. Beneficiary Giovanni Contini. Beneficiary Giovanni Loriga. Beneficiary Antonio Mundula. Priest Giovanni Maria Sanna, vice-parish-priest. Paolo Pinto for the senior parish priest. Priest Luigi Arru. Gavino Dessena. Diego Casu Serra. Chancellor of the Archbishop.

[31] [on the 12th of May a report is made both of the things which before this day, to prepare the finding,] And with these things a beginning was made of the recognition of the holy Relics. On the 12th of May of the same year 1848 a Report was drawn up and signed, which we set down in part, likewise rendered into Latin by us. First it is said that the Rev. Lord Archbishop Alessandro Domenico Varesini had already long since thought seriously of undertaking a third recognition or finding of the holy Relics; and that for this reason he had solicitously sought out notices and documents, both printed and manuscript, by which the ancient tradition was declared, but chiefly the Report on the second finding made in the year 1614 under the archbishop of Porto Torres Gavino Manca de Cedrelles, which Report, printed in the Spanish language at Madrid in the aforesaid year (others say in the following year, compare n. 27), Lord Canon Giovanni Scarpa had rendered in Italian and put to the press at Sassari in the year 1846. Having moreover heard older and upright men of the surrounding region, the heavenly light being invoked and trusting in the patronage of the holy Martyrs, he delegated the same Lord Canon Scarpa to betake himself to the basilica of Porto Torres and inquire about the seat of the relics. He accordingly began to explore the underground church. And first indeed he found that no Inscriptions existed anywhere. Then he removed the tiles, whether marble or stone, of the pavement; and at length he arrived at a certain vault. All of which things were carried out in the morning hours of the same day, there being present Lord vice-parish-priest Giovanni Maria Sanna and the senior sacristan Luigi Arru. Informed of these things, the Rev. Lord Archbishop came to the basilica, where, having seen and diligently examined what had been done up to now by his Delegate, and attending to the nature of the place itself, he readily perceived that the altar, in the likeness of the primitive churches and especially of the Church mother of all, had been erected over the tomb of the holy Martyrs. He therefore ordered the slab or sacred stone of the altar to be removed, and he asked Lord Paolo Duce, prefect of constructions and public works (ingegnere nel genio civile), to come to the basilica together with the Rev. Lord Luigi Sclavo, the secretary of the Rev. Lord Archbishop (segretario di confidenza), and, having inspected the works and the place, to bring forward his opinion on the aforesaid vault. Lord Paolo asserted that there was in fact a vault, so far as it was permitted to judge from the exterior part inspected (which alone lay open to the eyes); and that accordingly he could not say what lay hidden within, since it was not granted to explore it. Then the Rev. Lord Archbishop again delegated the same Lord Canon Scarpa, the vault remaining untouched and the altar (altarino) not being removed, to take away the footboard, so that it might be seen how far the vault extended. This however was put off to the 5th of March of the following year 1847; and the labor answered the wishes both of the delegator and of the delegate. He then, by order of the Rev. Lord Archbishop, locked with a key the door of the iron grille which is on the right of one entering the sanctuary. Since however there exists at the left side another door (this was closed and the key could not be found), for greater precaution nine seals were added in as many distinct places of the iron grille, and in addition two others to the holes of each lock. At once Lord Canon Scarpa called Gavino Dassena, a smith of Sassari, whom he had ordered to make a key to lock the wooden grille by which the Area or Oratory which is before the Sanctuary is closed; and he commanded him to close it. When he had done this, he at once handed the key to the same canon Delegate, who kept it with him until the twenty-fourth day of March last past. On which day were done the things recorded in the Instrument recited above.

[32] and of the things which were undertaken on this very day; On the 12th of May 1848 the Rev. Lord Archbishop with Baron Camossi, mayor of the city of Sassari (Governatore della citta capo di Sassari e Logoduro), Vincenzo Achenza and very many other chief men, who are all named, came together in the village of Porto Torres, and entering the basilica, twelve wax lights being lit, they went down into the underground church. And first the key mentioned in the Instrument of 24 March 1848 was diligently recognized. Then both Lords vice-parish-priests gave their word that they had unlocked the door of the wooden grille to no one, except when the aforesaid Confraternities arrived for night prayer, as had been provided. The wooden grille being opened, all proceeded to the iron one by which the sanctuary is shut off; the seals were inspected and found intact. The door being then opened, they entered the sanctuary; and it was asked of the aforesaid Paolo Duce, prefect of public works, and of Angelo Maria Pirotto, architect, whether the vault, so far as could be conjectured from the external part, which alone was uncovered, was an ancient work; whether the earth in that place had ever been moved, and whether that part of the fabric seemed to have been renewed or restored in the last year or two. They said that they would reply in writing to the questions, and indeed each separately from the other. After this the Rev. Lord Archbishop commanded Lord Canon Scarpa to dig once more around the vault, yet so that the wall should be left untouched; and to report to him on the success of the labor undertaken. And the doors of both grilles being locked, all departed. And these are the headings of the Report given on the 12th of May 1848 and signed by the Rev. Lord Archbishop, by Baron Camossi, the mayor, Vincenzo Achenza, syndic, and Giovanni Rugiu, dean. On the following day, that is, the 13th of May, the aforesaid Paolo Duce in writing, as he had promised, testifies that he went down together with Baron Camossi and other chief men into the Chapel which is under the high altar of the basilica; and he declares, after an accurate and diligent investigation, that he found that the uncovered part of the vault bears certain marks of some antiquity (attesta una qualche antichitâ), and that there exists no indication of any work or restoration recently undertaken, except the digging of which mention was made above. On the 17th of the same month of May, Giovanni Maria Pirotto, architect, declared the same, with the words somewhat changed.

[33] on the 8th of June the tomb is opened; On the 8th of June 1848. The Rev. Lord Archbishop returned to the basilica, and having heard Mass and entered with others into the underground church, he found that the ground, as he had commanded Lord Canon delegate Scarpa, had been cleared of rubble around the vault, so that its foundations lay open, without

the walls or any other part having been damaged, so that it was established that neither hand nor any instrument could have been inserted into the inner part of the vault. After this the Archbishop ordered the walls to be broken through; and the rubble being removed and the place cleaned, there was discovered under the vault an urn or tomb, of which more in the following number. Beyond this nothing was undertaken on this day; but the iron grilles of the sanctuary being closed and diligently sealed, each returned to his own home.

[34] on the 10th of June the relics of the holy Patrons are extracted and recognized On the 10th of June 1848. The Rev. Lord Archbishop Varesini together with the Rev. Lord Raffaele Arduino, bishop of Alghero, went to the basilica of the holy Martyrs, in which each first celebrated the sacred rites. Then at the eighth hour of the morning the archbishop in pontifical vesture began the hymn Veni Creator; which being completed, during the chanting of the Greater Litanies he proceeded to the subterranean oratory which is before the sanctuary, the Rev. Lord Bishop Arduino, the Chapter of Porto Torres, etc., accompanying him, and Baron Giovanni Camossi and not a few other chief men following. The Archbishop commanded the assessor and the chancellor attentively to consider the seals impressed on the iron grilles; and when these had been found entire and untouched both by these two and by all the others standing around, the door of the grille was opened, and, torches and wax candles being lit in great number, they entered the sanctuary; and inspecting the inner part of the vault they found that there was indeed there the confession or tomb of the holy Martyrs. The Archbishop accordingly ordered to be raised the stone of white marble of the tomb or Urn, which was the first to meet the eye and in the middle of which was marked the letter S. The Urn (as at once appeared) contained fifteen small leaden caskets furnished likewise with leaden plates, each of which bore its own proper inscription. On the plate of the first casket was read the following inscription: RELIQVIAS DE LA 2a RODOMA ; on the plate of the second casket: RELIQVIAS DE LA Pa RODOMA DONDE SE ALLO LA ESPINOLA DE PLATA.; on the third: S. INCOGNIT'. Unknown saint.; on the fourth likewise: S. INCOGNIT'. These four caskets were at the Epistle corner. At the Gospel corner, on the first plate and casket was read: S. INCOGNIT'.; on the second: B'. COMITA REX Blessed Comita, king; the third and fourth caskets had only one plate, the inscription of which consisted of two little lines; the beginning of the former was: * RELIQVIAS, which word indeed was read clearly written; the rest was deleted or scraped away. In the said sacred Urn there were also four other caskets, placed before the caskets of our holy Patrons. The first at the Epistle corner had a leaden plate and the inscription: S. GAVDENTI' EPS St. Gaudentius, bishop; the second in the same line was inscribed: S. IVSTINVS EPS. St. Justin, bishop; the third: S. FLORENTI' EPS. St. Florentius, bishop; the fourth finally: S. LVXORI' EPS. St. Luxorius, bishop. In the middle of the Urn was found a square casket, of the size of one and a half palms, of the height of two palms; and it was furnished with a plate, and ornamented round about with borders; moreover there was seen on the front face a star, and it bore the following inscription written in doubled letters: S. GAVINVS M. St. Gavinus, martyr. At the left side, at the Epistle corner, was a second casket, twelve centimeters wide, forty long, with a plate inscribed: S. JANVARIVS M. St. Januarius, martyr; at the right side, at the Gospel corner, was placed a third casket, of the same size as the aforesaid, with the plate: S. PROTVS M. EP' St. Protus, martyr, bishop… With his own hand the Rev. Lord Archbishop extracted the relics enclosed in those three caskets; and first indeed the relics of St. Gavinus, then of St. Protus, finally of St. Januarius. There was present Giuseppe Rosso, physician and surgeon and likewise reader of anatomy in the royal academy of Sassari, who recognized each bone as it was lifted by the Archbishop and designated it by its proper name. Then the Rev. Lord Archbishop, the Rev. Lord Bishop Arduino assisting, laid up those holy relics meanwhile in three wooden caskets, each of which he covered with an elegant silk cloth, on which also the Rev. Lord Arduino inscribed the names of the saints, namely its own for each casket.

[35] and carried into the basilica. Seals being then attached, the Archbishop lifted with his own hands the casket in which the pledges of St. Gavinus were contained; and the one with the relics of St. Protus he handed to the Rev. Lord Arduino, the one of St. Januarius to the Rev. Lord Canons Giovanni Rugiu, dean of the chapter and vicar general, and Salvatore Agnesa, parish priest of Porto Torres. Then, to the chanting of the Greater Litanies, they returned to the church, each of the aforesaid carrying a casket; and when they had gone around it, the Ambrosian hymn was said; and the caskets, placed under a magnificently ornamented canopy, and inserted together in a larger urn of crystal, lay open to the veneration of the faithful. After this the iron grilles were carefully fortified with seals and the door closed. There was present continually a dense multitude of the people, gathered from every side, moved with pious affection; nor was anything else heard through the church but sobs and sighs, witnesses of gladness. These things being carried out, the Rev. Lord Archbishop, accompanied by the Rev. Lord Arduino, bishop of Alghero, and the Chapter of Porto Torres, went to the high altar, where, the Blessed Sacrament being exposed, the blessing was imparted to the faithful who had run together in the greatest number and in festive dress to the solemnities of the finding. Of all these things an instrument was drawn up, which both prelates subscribed, the prefect of the city, Baron Camossi, and all the other chief men who had stood by present. On the same 10th of June, at the sixth hour after midday, with a most solemn rite, vespers were sung, the Archbishop presiding, the Chapter of Porto Torres assisting. There were present also the bishop of Alghero, the clergy of Sassari and of the village of Porto Torres, and the faithful in immense abundance, on all of whom the blessing was imparted by the same Archbishop. Finally the Archbishop extracted from the larger crystal urn the three wooden caskets in which, as has been said, the relics of the holy Patrons had been enclosed. The pledges of St. Gavinus the Bishop himself, those of St. Protus Lord Giovanni Riugu, those of St. Januarius Lord Canon penitentiary Dessanti carried, twelve torches being lit, into a cupboard which was in the old sacristy. This being locked and sealed, and the key handed to the Archbishop, all departed. Through the whole night one lamp and two candles burned.

[36] [On the 11th of June the Archbishop celebrates with solemn rite before the relics; a sermon, a procession, etc.;] On the 11th of June, at the sixth hour of the morning, the confraternity members commonly called Bainginians solemnly sang the divine office; which completed, their priest or chaplain celebrated Mass at the high altar of the basilica. Around the ninth hour the Archbishop proceeded to the old sacristy, and, the cupboard mentioned above being unlocked, and the seals recognized, he committed the reliquary of St. Protus to the bishop of Alghero, that of St. Januarius to the canon dean Riugu; the third, of St. Gavinus, he kept to be carried by himself. This done they proceeded to the platform where on the previous day the larger urn had been left. Then the same Archbishop, the Rev. Arduino, the Chapter of Porto Torres and many other clerics standing by, broke the seals of the three wooden caskets, and with his own hand extracted first the relics of St. Gavinus, which he at once handed to the bishop of Alghero; and he enclosed them in a smaller crystal urn, on which at once, lest confusion arise, he inscribed the words: St. Gavinus, martyr. So then the relics of the two other Saints were likewise transferred from the wooden caskets into crystal ones, and on the one was inscribed by the same bishop: St. Protus, bishop and martyr; on the other: St. Januarius, martyr. After this, these three caskets or urns being soldered shut, seals were attached, and the Archbishop, in the presence of the bishop and others, placed them in the larger urn of which mention is made above. And since both the larger and the smaller urns were transparent, the most numerous people, who had been present at the solemnity from the beginning, could look with their eyes on the holy pledges of the Patrons, which they had most eagerly desired; for which reason the excellent Bishop had also willed that the relics be transferred from some reliquaries into others. These things done, by mandate of the Archbishop (it was about the tenth hour), the assessor Lord Tanda and the chancellor Lord Diego Casu Serra carried the wooden caskets, in which the relics had previously been placed, into the aforesaid cupboard of the old sacristy, and handed the key to the Bishop. Then at half past the tenth hour the Archbishop celebrated with pontifical rite, the bishop of Alghero being present, the Chapter of Porto Torres assisting. After the singing of the Gospel, Lord Antonio Sanna Tolu, archpriest of the collegiate church at Osilo, delivered an oration on the praises of the holy Martyrs to a very crowded people; which finished he announced that indulgences of eighty days from the Archbishop and forty days from the bishop were granted through the whole octave to all and each who should visit the basilica. At the sixth hour after midday vespers were solemnly sung by the bishop of Alghero, the Primate and the Chapter of Porto Torres being present. At the seventh hour both bishops together with the Chapter and the confraternities of Sassari of the Bainginians, the Servants and the Holy Cross, likewise the confraternity of the Consolation (della Consolata) which is in the municipality of Porto Torres, betook themselves in procession to the rural church called after St. Gavinus Beheaded (San Baingio decapitato), from which they carried three images of the holy patrons Gavinus, Protus and Januarius to the basilica of Porto Torres. Finally at the ninth hour of the evening the Rev. Lord Varesini returned to the church and from the larger urn took out the three smaller ones, and handed one with the relics of St. Januarius to Angelo Delrio, provost of the Philippines, another with the relics of St. Protus to Canon Dassanti, the third, in which the bones of St. Gavinus were contained, he himself received; and, other clerics accompanying and twelve candles being lit, they proceeded to the cupboard already mentioned, in which they deposited the three urns: then, the cupboard being closed and sealed, they departed. — And these things were so done and carried out on the 11th of June at the hours written above, and individual instruments were drawn up of each, which the same Rev. Lord Varesini deigned to communicate to us in full, and from which (since there was no need to set them down entire) we have faithfully and almost word for word described all the foregoing.

[37] on the 12th of June the bishop of Alghero celebrates Mass, etc. On the 12th of June, at the seventh hour of the morning, in almost the same order in which they had been replaced on the previous day, the three urns were brought back by the Archbishop from the cupboard to the stage or platform, and laid up in the larger urn. At half past the seventh hour the divine office was solemnly said by the Bainginian confraternity members, and their priest celebrated at the high altar. At the tenth hour the Rev. Lord Arduino celebrated pontifically, the Primate being present and the Chapter of Porto Torres assisting. Lord Giuseppe Gambella preached a sermon to a people still more crowded than on the previous day. Mass being finished, they went in solemn procession as far as the port. The bishop of Alghero carried the Venerable Sacrament, the Archbishop accompanying, the capitulars of Porto Torres, clergy and confraternities assisting. At the port the blessing was given to all, during which the bronze guns from the neighboring ships thundered. At the sixth hour after midday vespers were solemnly sung, both bishops being present. Finally at the ninth hour the Archbishop laid up the three caskets in the cupboard as on the preceding day.

[38] the events of the 13th of June; On the 13th of June, at the seventh hour in the morning, the reliquaries were brought back to the stage and deposited in the larger urn. At half past the eighth hour the office was sung by the Bainginian confraternity members, Mass was said by their chaplain. At the tenth hour solemnly celebrated

Mass Lord Giovanni Riugu, dean of the Chapter of Porto Torres; Lord Giovanni Battista Casula, rector of the college of St. Apollinaris in the city of Sassari, preached a sermon. At the ninth hour of the evening the reliquaries were carried back in the accustomed manner to the cupboard of the old sacristy.

[39] [on the 14th of June the relics of other Saints laid up in the underground church are recognized.] On the 14th of June the same things were carried out as on the preceding day. But this took place, worthy of special mention. Namely in the morning at half past the ninth hour both Rev. Lord bishops, followed by many chief men, who are all named in the instrument, came to the iron grilles by which the sanctuary of the underground church is shut off; and the seals being recognized and the door opened they entered and went forward as far as the vault or tomb; and the Rev. Lord Archbishop at once ordered first to be removed the stone in whose middle, as we have said, was written the letter S., and which had already been moved on the 10th of June for recognizing and extracting the relics of SS. Gavinus, Protus and Januarius (n. 34). Once more the leaden plates were inspected and their inscriptions examined. Then it was discovered that behind this first urn or coffin there was also another; whence, at the mandate of the same Pontiff, all looking on, a second stone was moved from its place, and there lay open a second urn or coffin, in which again ten small leaden caskets were laid up; on the first was read written: S. EDESI'. PRÆSBITER St. Edesius, priest; on the second: S. GABINVS CRISPVL' ET CRESCENTIAN' M. SS. Gabinus, Crispulus and Crescentian, martyrs; on the third: S. PETRONIA V. M. St. Petronia, virgin and martyr; on the fourth: ✠ S. COM. . S. CILI. St. Com. . St. Cili.; on the fifth: S. AMANTI' St. Amantius; on the sixth: S. MARCELL' M. St. Marcellus, martyr; on the seventh: S. PISANA V. M. St. Pisana, virgin and martyr; on the eighth: B. M. MARTIN' Blessed martyr Martin; on the ninth: S. FELIX DIACON' M. St. Felix, deacon, martyr; on the tenth: SANCT' FORTVNAT' M… INVENT' A. D. MDCXIIII, ET HIC RECONDIT' A. D. MDCXXII. [St. Fortunatus, martyr… found in the year of the Lord 1614, and laid up here in the year of the Lord 1622.] (The place was thus opened in the eighth year after the second finding, which took place in the year 1614 under Bishop Manca de Cedrelles. See n. 27 and 28.) All these being restored to their places, and a third stone raised, a third coffin was discovered, containing innumerable pledges of Saints whose names are unknown, as is plain from this single title cut on a leaden plate: Sti INCOGNITI Unknown saints. Finally a fourth stone being removed, a fourth coffin likewise was found, full of relics of Saints and likewise marked with one and the same inscription: Sti INCOGNITI. This so copious treasure of heavenly pearls, not without an inner movement of both religion and gratitude, all who were present beheld and recognized. Finally at the ninth hour of the evening, in the same way as yesterday and the day before, the relics of SS. Gavinus, Protus and Januarius were carried back to the cupboard of the old sacristy, to be kept there at night.

[40] Events of the three following days; On the three following days nothing is noted worthy of particular mention; in the morning the three reliquaries were carried from the cupboard to the accustomed place, and in the evening again to the sacristy. At the ninth hour of the morning a solemn Mass was celebrated by one of the chief canons.

[41] on the 18th of June an end was put to the solemnity, Finally on the 18th of June, the feast of the Holy Trinity, an end was put to the celebration of this Recognition or third Finding, and besides in the metropolitan church of the city of Sassari thanks were given with solemn rite. It will help to set out the series of events in the order in which they followed one another. At the seventh hour in the morning Lord Canon Scarpa, the delegate, carried from the cupboard of the old sacristy the three crystal urns so often mentioned to the platform on which they were customarily deposited during the day. At which time the faithful had already gathered in the greatest number, fervent with piety and devotion, venerating the holy Relics. At the tenth hour the Rev. Lord Canon dean Rugiu solemnly celebrated. Nothing more was done in the basilica of Porto Torres until the sixth hour of the evening. But at Sassari in the metropolis, on the same day, as we intimated above, the Rev. Lord Archbishop wished solemn thanks to be rendered for the benefits obtained through the whole course of the Recognition. The capitular Mass was accordingly celebrated, the Rev. Lord Bishop Arduino assisting, and the Archbishop being present. Then the same Archbishop himself in pontifical habit intoned the Ambrosian hymn, which being completed in festive manner and with the use of musical harmony, he imparted to the very dense multitude of the faithful the blessing of the Blessed Sacrament. There were present the mayor of the city and province, Baron Camossi, and other most notable men of all orders, together with all the families of regulars, all the confraternities and colleges of craftsmen; in a word, as many as there were in the city distinguished in dignity had come together for this solemnity. After this both bishops returned (for they had departed from there on the 15th of June) to the municipality of Porto Torres, so as to make an end of the eight-day celebration.

[42] and the relics were replaced in the underground church. Namely the Archbishop, in the presence of the Rev. Lord Arduino and of other chief men, both of the clergy and of the laity, took from the larger urn the three often-mentioned crystal caskets; of which he handed that of St. Protus to the bishop, that of St. Januarius to the dean, and kept the third, of St. Gavinus, to be carried by himself, and thus to the chanting of the Greater Litanies all went around the basilica and returned to the underground sanctuary. The Litanies being completed with the prayers subjoined, the Archbishop, all looking on, ordered the three caskets to be opened, one after another, from which the bishop of Alghero lifted the individual relics and at once gave them into the hands of the Rev. Lord primate Varesini, who placed them in three other leaden urns, prepared and blessed for this purpose; which then, well closed and sealed, and each inscribed with the name of its own holy Martyr, were laid up in the same coffin under the vault in which they had rested before the recognition began. In the other three coffins under the same vault, of which see above, n. 34 and 49, the relics remained deposited as they had been before, and finally on each of the four coffins was placed one of the four stones, of which likewise mention has been made above. These things completed, the Archbishop gave in charge to his delegate Lord Giovanni Scarpa that he should close up the vault as accurately as possible, so that not even the slightest entrance should lie open to the interior of the confession. And thus was concluded the solemn octave, celebrated in the basilica of Porto Torres on the occasion of the third Finding.

[43] During the octave many benefits conferred from heaven are recorded. This festivity was surely most worthy, whether one regards the zeal of both bishops, who accomplished all things with the highest vigilance, industry and piety, or the concourse of the faithful, coming in a number increasing daily not only from the city of Sassari and neighboring places, but also from distant towns and villages. For very many betook themselves here with unshod feet and loosened hair; and they were of every age, sex and condition; and although there were among them those who had on foot journeys of six, seven, eight or even ten leagues to measure, and this in the burning heat and scorching sun, nevertheless all were present in good health, cheerful and peaceful; bearing in mind this one thing, namely to behold and venerate as soon as possible the pledges of the holy Patrons, from which some, as they openly professed, perceived a sweet fragrance; nor did anyone depart from the sanctuary without much consolation and pious feelings. For the rest, through all that time neither in the sanctuary, nor in the oratory, basilica and courts was any complaint heard, no lament; nor any offense committed; and nothing at all done by which anyone could or intended even in the slightest to disturb this solemn Finding of the blessed patrons Gavinus, Protus and Januarius, and of many other holy Martyrs of Porto Torres… There were also reported to have taken place some things exceeding human powers and understanding, which, because they demand further inquiry, the Rev. Lord pontiff Varesini has begun to subject to a more diligent examination. So the Proceedings.

[44] From these things it shines forth more than sufficiently with what cult and veneration the Sardinians have attended their holy Patrons. The veneration of the holy Martyrs There was recently published by the press of Turin, in the Italian language, an excellent booklet whose title is: The Month of October, etc. (we have set down the whole title of the little work in Latin and Italian at n. 27 Il mese di Ottobre consecrato alle glorie dei santi Gavino etc.). In this booklet, for each day of the said month, among other pious exercises, there is a reading on the life or perpetual cult of the holy Patrons in the church of Porto Torres. The booklet is dedicated to the Rev. Lord Alessandro Domenico Varesini, archbishop, who undertook and executed the third recognition of the holy Martyrs with pious solicitude and regal munificence; and to the distinguished Chapter and clergy of Porto Torres, who gave excellent effort to their most excellent Pastor. The writer took most things from the Acts of the passion and from the two earlier findings of the sacred bodies. But since we have spoken copiously of these above, it will suffice here to add some things which pertain properly to the cult. And first indeed it has prevailed already from long past that the month of October is named in the region after St. Gavinus (il mese di S. Gavino). Various processions are also described, carried out with great pomp, to which a numberless multitude of people flowed together from every side Ibid., pp. 124, 129, 133, etc., during which wondrous healings are said to have taken place, aerial harmonies and the noise of drums to have been heard; bells giving forth sound of their own accord without any impulse, which could be perceived in some places several leagues distant from there, and other things of that kind Ibid.. For the rest, the booklet itself of which we are treating plainly demonstrates that the piety of the Sardinian people toward the holy Patrons has persevered even to our days.

[45] Very many examples of a devout spirit are also presented in the often-mentioned Dictionary of the kingdom of Sardinia, testimonies some of which we shall set down, yet with this admonition set first, that the writer, in making jests and indulging in gibes and turning to mockery rites established in custom for so many centuries past, neither disapproved nor proscribed by the governors of the church (though perhaps excessive and for our age somewhat exaggerated), shows himself not sufficiently fair, indeed rather hostile, in judging sacred matters, and in carping too bitterly at the more candid movements of a religious people. And it is surely to be regretted that men otherwise distinguished in doctrine and erudition should obey prejudged opinions of that sort; which (for it cannot be denied) has in our days prevailed all too much among many who value divine things not, as they ought, by the rules of a higher wisdom, but measure them by the gauge of a merely secular prudence. These things being noted first, let us return to the testimonies and signs of the perpetual cult. In the first place surely must be set the church itself, erected at least in the 11th century, which seems to have been preceded by another far older. Compare n. 21. There stands beside the sea, at a distance of a fourth part of one league from the village of Portotorre, on a rock beaten by the waves, a chapel with a small altar, in whose left wall lies open the entrance to a cave, where the holy martyrs Gavinus, Protus and Januarius are reported to have been found Dizionario geogr. di Sardegna, vol. XV, p. 651.. In the cave is seen a small low cavern, from which one passes into another like it; each is furnished with grilles; in one there are found two images,

in the other, only one. Those images are an indication of the place in which the sacred remains of each holy Martyr were discovered Ibid., p. 652.. If our writer is to be believed, the place was squalid about the year 1849, neglected and rough; he then adds: It stands for certain with me that Comita found the bodies there, or rather translated them from the place in which they had been preserved and concealed to another more worthy, namely to the church dedicated in the name of the holy Martyrs; but I cannot be brought to give credit to the history of the Finding, as it is held in the ancient Legend; nor is it duly proved to me that the aforesaid cave was truly the tomb of the holy Martyrs.

[46] Under the middle nave (for there are three) of the basilica extends an underground church, some. of almost the same length as the nave itself; under the high altar, which is much raised, there is a place closed by grilles, where lamps burn continually and St. Gavinus is venerated with much religion Ibid., p. 651.. There also, in the time of Lent, at night and with the lamps extinguished, pious pilgrims, having set out from Sassari, beat themselves with scourges to the chanting of the Psalm Miserere Ibid., p. 653.. On the chief feast day of St. Gavinus, in the month of October, there is a very great concourse of people from all the provinces of northern Sardinia; the pilgrims are accustomed to go around and kiss the columns of the basilica: for there is a report that one of them (which was lacking to make up the number of twenty-four) was brought by St. Gavinus, who, sitting on his horse, lifted it from the depth of the sea and conveyed it across Ibid.. This circuit most make going on their knees or creeping. May it be permitted on this occasion to remark that a custom of this kind has been practiced almost everywhere on earth by a pious and simple people, and is likewise employed by some up to this day. Nor do I see why that rite, undertaken with a sincere feeling of devotion and dear to the multitude, should move sensible men to laughter or disdain. For the rest, prelates take care that a limit be gradually and prudently set to these things, where they have ceased to be for the edification of the faithful (of others there need not be so much care), or even that they be wholly suppressed, if it is proper. There is also customarily held at this period a public procession, in which the images of the holy Patrons are carried to the basilica, in memory, as is believed, of the translation of their Relics made by the judge Comita. This procession, besides the other numberless crowd, two confraternities follow in dense order: one of the Bainginians, that is, of St. Gavinus, who in the common tongue is called Baingiu for Gavingiu, the letter g being changed into b, as is frequent with the Sardinians; the other of the Servites or servants of the Blessed Mary. How great the multitude is that flows together from all sides to the solemnity may be judged even from this, that during these days on the surrounding hills fully three thousand horses are seen pasturing Ibid., p. 654.

* That is, from the Spanish, in Latin: relics of the first glass ampoule.

Redoma, not Rodoma

* Relics of the glass ampoule (Redoma) where a little pin? of silver was found.

* In Latin, Relics.

Of St. Gavinus, martyr of Porto Torres.

(From Giovanni Arca, book II, on the Holy Martyrs of Sardinia.)

Gavinus, soldier, martyr at Porto Torres in Sardinia. (S.)

Protus, presbyter, martyr at Porto Torres in Sardinia. (S.)

Januarius, deacon, martyr at Porto Torres in Sardinia. (S.)

FROM GIOVANNI ARCA.

SINGLE CHAPTER.

St. Gavinus, the renowned martyr of Christ, having wondered at the constancy of SS. Protus and Januarius, is converted, and cannot be deterred by threats from the faith he has taken up. At last, beheaded, he is thrown into the sea. He appears first to a certain Calpurnius; then to SS. Protus and Januarius, whom he exhorts to hasten to the consummation of their martyrdom.

Preface. The praise of St. Gavinus, gloriously falling for Christ. If we wished to pursue his praises, a clear way would be opened for us by glorious Gavinus, who, rejoicing in a dreadful death in order to choose Christ, now rejoices in everlasting life with him whom he followed as leader, placed in the heavens. Truly Gavinus ^b, who, called from the sadness of demons to the joy of Christ, is so flooded with it that, rejoicing, he laid low the fury of Barbarus. For while still a neophyte, while still a stranger and foreigner to the divine laws, he suddenly and most abundantly fulfills the commands of the faith. Advancing, a neophyte, to harsh contests, he carries off as a veteran a distinguished victory over the enemy. Not sprinkled at the font, he was washed by his shed blood; the life which he did not draw from the font of baptism he drew from a savage death; so that he who could not display: I am buried together with Christ through the baptism of water unto death, might say: I was aided by him in baptism through death. How much divine love, kindled in a human breast, accomplishes! A neophyte, without the baptism of water, he found eternal life, slaughtered through death. Not yet set out to the soldiery of Christ, he was held worthy of friendship; not yet holding the entrance of the church, he penetrates the palace in a conquered triumph; not yet made a soldier of Christ, he was made a co-heir of glory; not yet of the household in the house of God, he was received as a son in the kingdom of God. For what glory did that valor of Gavinus merit, and that unshaken greatness of faith, nourished by inner love of Christ, and proved by sudden tests? None other indeed than heavenly glory itself, celebrated by the greatness of distinguished miracles; who, when he approached the very threshold of the Christian faith, stood before the pagan governor, pleading the cause of those whom he had seen destined to death for the faith of Christ. Most savage torments hung before his eyes, and he cries out with a most clear voice that he is a servant of Christ; as if, made a Christian, he were being led not to punishments but to pleasant solace. I am a Christian, he says, and as a Christian I shall fall: I offer myself, that I may drag those most approved servants of God Proptus and Januarius out of your hands. The governor seethes with fury, and does not see where to turn. But the more he seethes with anger, the more the Saint is kindled with the flame of divine love. The one to death, the other to a most delightful life; the one to be consumed by perpetual punishments, the other to enjoy eternal joys; the one to be overwhelmed by the densest darkness, the other to shine with most clear light before the Lord, to which may it be granted to us to come through this divine Saint ^c.

[2] [St. Gavinus the soldier is converted to Christ during the passion of SS. Protus and Januarius,] When at Turres ^d, once an illustrious city of Sardinia, Proptus and Januarius ^e were being exercised with torments for defending the faith of Christ, Gavinus, a most noble soldier ^f, who, far from the true religion, took delight in all ways in the tortures of the martyrs, was converted to the faith and crowned with martyrdom. He, since he was most approved in the worship of the gods, had Saints Proptus and Januarius committed to him by the governor Barbarus, to keep them in the tightest custody. But because it has been said by the Lord, who is deceived in nothing: With the holy you shall be holy, the holiness of the Martyrs flows forth into Gavinus. Discoursing on divine things they sing such and so great things of the most powerful God, that, the Lord now admonishing, Gavinus was inclined to embrace God. I beg you, he says, show me who this God is whom you follow, despising torments, and what glory you hope for from the battle undertaken. This is our God, they reply, whom neither man nor angel suffices to commend; immense in power, eternal and invisible, who from nothing formed all things by his word alone, and rules and governs the world he made, rejoicing always in his might and power. Not content with these things, made man he came into this world, suffered death from the governor Pilate, tortured with torments and crucified, that he might snatch us from the power of the demons, who rule over all after the fall of our parent Adam; on the third day raised from the dead, he ascended triumphing into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the eternal heavenly Father. For which reason we count as gain these and greater torments for such a God.

[3] whom, before the governor Barbarus, he fearlessly confesses; Gavinus requires no other things, that he might profess Christ in word and deed. He dismissed the Saints, loosed from their chains, whom he earnestly begs that they would remember him with their prayers before the Lord. Hence he began to burn with the desire of martyrdom; and on the following day in the morning, called before the governor Barbarus, he pleaded the cause of the Saints. Bring, said the governor, those most wicked men whom I committed yesterday to your custody. Those whom you call most wicked, he replies, you would, if you knew them, call holy and just. It was not lawful to confine those whom I have known as heavenly and given over to the most powerful God. On which matter I would have it known to you that I have been brought over to Christ, for whom, if it should be necessary, I shall eagerly go to death itself. For I do not see by what reason you are led to remove these holy Men from the most true God for the sake of mute and vain idols. Who is so foolish and so delirious in mind that, despising his creator, he should undertake to adore those statues of which it is said: They have ears and will not hear. Have you not heard the Prophet: Let all be confounded who adore graven images, and who glory in their idols? If you close your eyes to these things, you will perish in the fire of eternal torment. Then the governor, kindled with anger and fury, attacks the Saint like a most ravenous wolf, loading him with many insults and reproaches. Take this man away from me, he said, henchmen; who, confused in mind and senseless, has disturbed the bowels of my mind and body, despising the precepts of the most invincible princes. Let him receive the death he has chosen, having followed the Crucified, condemned to a most shameful death.

[4] for which reason capital sentence is pronounced against him. Without delay; sentence on his head was pronounced. And lest the Christians should find and take away the body of the most blessed Martyr, he orders him to be slain beside the shore of the sea and thrown into the deep from the rocky places. The ministers, diligent in the work, are eager to fulfill most swiftly the sentence pronounced, and seizing Gavinus they carry him to the appointed place. And when, surrounded by soldiers, he was being led along, there came to meet him a woman who had tasted Christian teachings, who, pouring out bitter tears, held out a veil for her head, saying: Most faithful Servant of God, I beg you to cover your eyes (sic) with this little linen cloth when you are beheaded by the sword. Gavinus, receiving it, gives thanks to the woman. And reaching the place of beheading, which is called the Port of Balagai ^g, on bended knees as a suppliant he prays: I give you thanks, most clement God, who have chosen me into the number of your own, not indeed by my merits, but by your mercy alone; who reject the death of sinners, awaiting their conversion that they may live. I beg you, most kind God, that just as you enrolled me on earth among your faithful, so you would receive me to be placed in heaven; and that you would lead this place, a worshipper of idols, to the true faith, so that, always knowing you, it may abandon idols and hasten to eternal things. Having briefly said this, and his eyes being veiled with the little linen cloth, his head bowed, bearing before him that word: Into your hands I commend my spirit, he was struck off at the head and thrown into the sea from a very rough rock.

[5] Having been beheaded he proceeds to the cave, Stripped of the body, the Saint does not forget his Companions, desirous of having them in glory. He makes, visible, for the cave in which Saints Prothus and Januarius lie hidden. And that he might respond to every duty, he first meets Calpurnius, husband of the aforesaid woman, who, weighed down by the burden of the beasts he was carrying, was anxiously held back on the road. Gavinus relieves those, and gives back the little cloth which he had received from his wife, and, thanks being given, he departs. Coming

home, Calpurnius found his wife weeping. Our Gavinus, she says, was killed today by the cruel Barbarus. Be silent, woman, says Calpurnius, and refrain from tears; because what you say is false: for just now as I was coming I had a helper to raise up my beasts lying down. That you may find this out more clearly, see, he gives you back with thanks the little cloth. His wife, taking it folded, unfolds it entirely, and finds it soaked with sprinkled blood. Calpurnius believes, and both for joy give thanks to Him who, wondrous in his saints, alone does wonders.

[6] In which SS. Protus and Januarius lay hidden. But blessed Gavinus comes to that cave which held his hiding Companions. This place is commonly called suburban, four thousand paces from the city of Porto Torres. And Gavinus cried out in spirit rather than in voice: O Priests of Christ and illustrious leaders of my martyrdom, why do you so long delay your eternal crown? Go down into the city, that you may carry off the palm prepared for you. If there is any fear, shake it off. I am that Gavinus whom you have had as a disciple for Christ, a sharer of your glory. Hasten therefore (for I await you) to the martyrdom to which I have gone before. Hearing this the Saints rise and receive the longed-for crown ^h. These wonders God effected, that he might illustrate with glory him who, having embraced the faith of Christ, showed himself so brave before the governor. And this most blessed Saint was killed on the eighth before the Kalends of November in the place already mentioned, in the three hundredth year after the birth of Christ, under the most impious rulers Diocletian and Maximian.

ANNOTATIONS.

* additus? added?

* adytum? sanctuary?

Of the holy martyrs of Porto Torres Proptus and Januarius.

(From Giovanni Arca, on the Saints of Sardinia, book II.)

Gavinus, soldier, martyr at Porto Torres in Sardinia. (S.)

Protus, presbyter, martyr at Porto Torres in Sardinia. (S.)

Januarius, deacon, martyr at Porto Torres in Sardinia. (S.)

FROM GIOVANNI ARCA.

SINGLE CHAPTER.

The writer of the Acts begins by extolling the precious death of the holy Martyrs. SS. Protus and Januarius appear before the governor Barbarus, and are tempted in various ways; then they are subjected to dreadful tortures and handed over to St. Gavinus to be guarded; he is converted, and both holy Champions, by order of Barbarus, are slain by the sword. Their bodies are preserved by divine agency.

Preface. The death of the Saints far more glorious than their birth. Prothus and Januarius are deservedly to be commended, since they were generated, poured out from the mother's womb not for this mortal and perishable life, but by the true conception of faith and the childbirth of martyrdom, for supreme and heavenly glory. They live as victors, because they slaughtered (sic) death by the new birth of the heavenly soldiery. Having followed the Lord by dying, burning in spirit, panting with gasping breath, and with all effort, adhering to the Lord's precepts, they exchanged death for life. They are retarded by no labor or fear of torments set before them from following most gladly him who called them to glory and putting on a new and abiding life. At the voice of the Lord they forget fatherland, parents and themselves; so that, labors and torments being most willingly undertaken, they might through this victory be received into the true fatherland. So Prothus, conquered in all things, gained for himself an illustrious victory. Nor was the younger, Januarius, light of spirit, who, assaulted by the governor, could not be overcome. Like a dragon with its deceiving tail, the governor Barbarus, flattering him concerning his youth, heaped on him a great discourse, promising the privileges of the royal court. But the young Servant of God, following the elder, chose with the prophet rather to be cast down in the house of God than to live with unhappy glory in the tents of sinners. From blandishments they come to hard things; to harder blows, to hardest wounds. But he who had breathed Christ with true incense, like an elephant on tasting fresh blood, was kindled for the hard battle, so that, not bent by the blow, he should not be terrified by gore, nor by the last of terrible things, death. And Prothus's exile being recalled, the contest being joined, both conquer the governor, conquer the executioners, conquer finally themselves, stripping themselves of the world, by stripping themselves of the flesh, that, clothed with eternal things, they might be said to be born to life on such a day; that those whom human death had seemed to overwhelm in the everlasting darkness of oblivion, the very posterity of the ages might commend with most brilliant encomiums.

[2] Prothus and Januarius, brought up in the city of Porto Torres ^a, set out for Rome and were ordained by Pope Caius ^b, The holy Martyrs are brought before Barbarus. Prothus presbyter ^c and Januarius deacon. And when they had been instructed in divine letters, having returned to Sardinia they sowed the divine word at Turres. There was sent at this time by the emperors Diocletian and Maximian into the province of Sardinia Barbarus ^d, to hold the principal charge of administration. He, as he was brought to Turres, learned that these Saints day

and night, on the mount which is called Agellus ^e, were giving sedulous effort to divine things. He ordered the Servants of God to be brought to him (for he thought this should be done first in his administration); and having them before him, Barbarus in name and deed, he inquired with a barbarous countenance: I wish to know whose you are, and what faith you follow. To this with cheerful countenance the most faithful Servants: If you ask our nation, we were born in Sardinia and brought up in this city of Porto Torres. But if our religion, we are Christians, and we preach Christ in Sardinia. Then the savage governor to them: Are you ignorant of the edict of the Roman emperors, that those who are called Christians should either vow themselves to the idols or be finished off by the sharp sword? We have heard, the Brothers say; but we despise those things; because we ought to obey God rather than men. Our sacrifice is perpetual to God alone, not to stones, which it is madness to venerate; in which we wonder at your prudence, wrapped in so great a veil of folly that it venerates stones and wood, which have been fashioned by the hands of men, as a god, or rather as an enclosed demon.

[3] [St. Protus being sent into exile, the governor attempts to soften St. Januarius with blandishments;] Kindled by these words, the savage Barbarus cast the presbyter Prothus into exile on the island of Cornicularia ^f, commonly Linaria, keeping with him the young Januarius. He strove to strip the young man's spirit, the spirit of Januarius, of the faith he had taken up, using blandishments and false promises, thinking he would succeed because he was younger than Prothus. But he was deceived: for he was found so firm and brave that he was bent by no promises from the faith of Christ. He recalled Prothus from exile, if perhaps, wearied by the labors of exile, he could be enticed to his opinion. When he was present he said to him: Learn to know the power of the most invincible emperors and to obey in submission. Exile has now taught you what it is permitted to do among our gods; but passing over all these things, I willingly promise you that you will be appointed a pontiff of our gods, if you offer gifts to our gods with lowly spirit. Rather we, says Prothus, because we love you with true love, trust that you will be brought over from that error of blindness to the true faith, if you obey our faithful counsel: for it has been said through the prophet: And all kings of the earth shall adore him; all nations shall serve him. And as if adding the reason: Because he has delivered the poor man from the mighty, and the poor man who had no helper. Who, that he might make us sharers of his divinity, came forth from a virginal womb made man, and having voluntarily suffered for our salvation, despoiled the underworld; and rising on the third day, he shone upon his disciples, bestowing immortality, ascended to heaven, and sitting at the right hand of the Father, watches over all things that are done in the world; and he who is to come in judgment will judge the living and the dead, rendering to each according to his works, to the saints the rewards of eternal life, to the followers of the demon everlasting fire. For which reason hold for certain that our faith is founded on a firm foundation, and is not to be moved by any force. And concerning those idols set forth, it has been said to your reproach: Let those who make them become like them, and all who trust in them. They have a mouth and will not speak, etc.

[4] but in vain. To these things the governor, not daring to reply, cast Prothus outside, that he might address Januarius alone, whom, placed beside him, embracing him, he attacked again with sweet words: Most beloved young man, do not defile your beauty, the flower of youth being shaken off. Assent to our counsels, because, adorned with great honor, you will be among the most intimate household of the emperor. And he adds: But if you will not assent to me, I shall finish you with various punishments together with your companion. Januarius, despising honors and torments, replied with great spirit: I value your tortures lightly, because I await that crown which the Lord has set before me to receive. Shake out all the power of your arm, I shall be moved in nothing: nor do I expect anything else to flow from you, who, smeared with gall, always vomit forth the lethal poison of diabolical bitterness upon the good.

[5] Both are tortured and handed over to St. Gavinus to be guarded; Then, made savage by anger, he hung both on the rack, and butchered their bodies with iron claws; so that what they would not do from love they might consent to, conquered by torment. But the more they were tortured in body, the more they were increased in spirit toward divine love, most joyfully singing: Let us lift up our eyes to the mountains, whence help shall come to us; our help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. When he saw them so brave, he took them down from the rack, not pitying their labor, but in order to devise a greater pain. He handed them over to Gavinus ^g the soldier, to keep them in the tightest custody. And being led to prison, they preached such great things of Christ Jesus to Gavinus that they brought him to Christ through their tortures. For, at once converted and presented to the governor, he acquired the palm of martyrdom, beheaded.

[6] and returning to the governor they are struck by the sword, The Saints went out from the city, set loose by Gavinus's permission, and hid themselves in a cave, awaiting the outcome of events. Not long after they had a sure message that the road to heaven had been made for them, because Gavinus, having received the palm of martyrdom, invited those whom he had had as teachers for the faith to his glory of martyrdom. He called cheerfully to those in hiding, excluding every difficulty of fear: Hasten, he said, through martyrdom to heaven, because the door lies open; I have gone before in martyrdom, that I might be a messenger to you. Receiving this, and seeing Gavinus, the Saints went out from the cave, and giving thanks to God they went down into the city. A messenger flew to the governor, that the fugitives were approaching of their own accord; and he, affected with joy, waited at the tribunal, and when he saw them he asked the cause of their flight. But the Saints to him: Give us our surety Gavinus, that he may make clear where we have been. Gavinus having been made a magician, he says, I have sent to him whom he followed, Christ, that he may wait for you with him. The Saints were more cheerful than the governor himself was kindled: Joyfully (they say) we shall follow our Gavinus. Then the governor, sentence of death being pronounced, ordered them to be killed on the promontory of Balai ^h, where he had slain Gavinus. And in anger descending from the tribunal: Let them be taken away from here, he cried out, the madmen. While they were being dragged to death, they sang the praises of God continually: Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord. When they were brought to Balai, prayer being made, and mutual kisses given, they were consummated by the sword ⁱ, that they might congratulate one another with Gavinus on their glory, on the Eighth before the Kalends of November.

[7] Balai is a promontory, a very high sheer rock, to be dreaded for its horrible roughness. The bodies preserved by divine agency. From here the bodies of the three Saints were cast down into the sea, that, sunk in the depths, they might appear nowhere any more. But the most gracious God, who also brought to the shore, in a marble shrine floating on the sea, the holy Clement, thrown into the deep sea with an anchor tied to his neck, brought about by his right hand that those bodies which had been a most honorable temple of the Holy Spirit should not be submerged, untouched by the waves. For certain Christians, coming by night and finding the bodies, buried them honorably on the shore of the sea, not far distant from the promontory of Balai, where Christ the Lord worked many miracles to the glory of these Saints ^k.

ANNOTATIONS.

THE FINDING OF THE BODIES OF SS. GAVINUS, PROTHUS AND JANUARIUS.

(From Giovanni Arca, on the Saints of Sardinia, book II.)

Gavinus, soldier, martyr at Porto Torres in Sardinia. (S.)

Protus, presbyter, martyr at Porto Torres in Sardinia. (S.)

Januarius, deacon, martyr at Porto Torres in Sardinia. (S.)

FROM GIOVANNI ARCA.

SINGLE CHAPTER.

To Comita, a very religious man and Judge in part of Sardinia, when

he lay gravely ill, St. Gavinus, appearing to him on one and another occasion, commands him to seek out both his own relics and those of SS. Protus and Januarius. Comita, his health restored, builds a church, translates the holy Bodies and a little later dies. His successor in the judicate sees that the sacred building is solemnly dedicated.

Some things set out first on Comita and his sisters. When they had lain hidden for many years after the city of Porto Torres had been overthrown ^a, at length, by a divine miracle, they were found by the Judge Comita ^b, concerning whom it will not be out of place to set first a few things before the narrative, so that the way of this brief reading may be opened more clearly. This man Comita was born of noble family, lord of the two Judicates of the Golden Place ^c and of Arborea; and if credit is to be given to Jerónimo Zurita ^d, he was the first who presided over the Judicate of Arborea. He was a man of singular prudence, honest in morals, generous to the poor, kind to all, and, what is of concern for a governor, most upright in judgment. He had three sisters: Georgia, Preciosa and Catherine ^e, all distinguished and celebrated in the memory of their deeds. Georgia indeed, among many illustrious deeds, built a palace with magnificent apparatus, which palace sits in the town of Ardara ^f, where the Judges of the kingdom of Logudoro lived for a long time, and many of them were buried in that place. She recovered the annual revenues and founded the town of Ardara and girded it with firm walls. Finally she erected from the foundations a church at the same castle of Ardara dedicated to the Virgin Mary, whose feast is commemorated up to these our times, with a great concourse from neighboring places, in the month of September on the day of the Nativity. Nor was the second sister Preciosa worthy of less praise, who, endowed with not a woman's but a man's valor, not fearing to handle arms, conquered Baldus, Judge of the province of Gallura, and conducted him, conquered, into the castle of Ardara, built from the foundations by her sister. Of the third sister Catherine we find nothing similar done, except that she merited praise by her piety, because she exercised herself assiduously in works of virtue. So much briefly of the sisters.

[2] To Comita, lying gravely ill The Judge, the brother, God so permitting, having governed the provinces with singular prudence and integrity, was infected at the castle of Ardara with so pestilent a leprosy that he could neither lift his eyes to heaven nor open them: for all his sinews being contracted, he was tormented by assiduous pains, and lying on his bed, as if fixed by certain nails, he had neither the strength nor the means of turning himself to any side. And when no effort of physicians was of use, he lay despaired of as to health. In this disease he showed himself of such patience that he merited to be relieved by divine consolation. Since this is the head of the narrative, we shall relate how it was done in a distinct order.

[3] [St. Gavinus appears, commanding him to seek both his own relics and those of his Companion Martyrs,] Worn out by such a disease, he has the holy Gavinus before him in sleep, by whom, addressed in these words, he is invited to health of body and soul: Come, rise, Comita, and make for the port of Porto Torres, and there find out where the mount stands which is called Agellus, because you must build a church to the memory of me and of my companions Prothus and Januarius; there you will find our relics laid up and unknown. Roused by these words, Comita, his eyes being lifted to him as far as he could, saw blessed Gavinus before him. Gavinus was going clothed in white garments, and riding a white horse he bore a distinguished banner. Terrified by the unusual thing, Comita did not dare to reply. But addressed again by Gavinus, his eyes open rather of the mind than of the body, he most willingly assented, and narrated to his mother and sisters what had occurred; and he adds that he had never seen a more beautiful mortal man. Then unanimous thanks were rendered to God, that he had deigned to manifest so great a treasure. And that the things divinely commanded might be quickly executed, it was proclaimed through both provinces, which lay open most widely, that they should come together in great numbers at the port of Turres or at the town of Kerqui ^g on a certain appointed day. First there was a concourse to the royal hall in which the Judge lay sick. From here he was carried to the estate of Octavum, which then sat at the mid-point of the road to the port of Porto Torres, and which is now seen levelled to the ground. Having stayed there for fifteen days, he inquired of those before his eyes about mount Agellus, whose memory had perished, the city of Porto Torres having been destroyed.

[4] which order when he was solicitously At length after long inquiry an old man rose, Guantinus Querquius: Let us make for the place of Turres (he said), because, unless memory deceives, while I was young, [carrying it out, St. Gavinus is again present, and teaches in what place the sacred pledges are to be found.] I had in mind the site and name of mount Agellus. Then the judge, with that very crowded retinue with which he had begun the journey, was at length carried to the place where the suspicion of the spot lay. And when, wearied by the journey, he had taken sleep, he saw a man coming by sea, sitting on a shining white horse, just as if he were running over firm and stable ground. He, when he came nearer, as is wont to happen in a dream, addressed the sleeper in this manner: Behold the place in which the church is to be built by you; you yourself will determine its length and breadth; and by giving the first stroke to the foundation you will recover your health. The judge held that divine counsel firm and ratified, recognizing Gavinus as its interpreter. At once carried to the place, he who had been carried with difficulty on a litter, was made already stronger. With a mattock he struck the ground with his own hands three times, giving an auspice to the first foundations of the church. Then a little hut being put together, as the time allowed, because, as we have said, that place lay deserted on account of the overthrow of Turres from the foundations, when he had rested the whole night overcome by a very deep sleep, waking in the morning he felt himself restored to such unharmed health as if he had never in his life labored under leprosy or any other disease.

[5] Comita, grateful for his recovered health, builds the church; For which reason the chief men of the province, flooded with incredible joy, together with his mother and sisters, at once rendered immense thanks to God. Then on the following night Gavinus was again seen by the old man, as if congratulating him on his restored health. Having shown him beforehand the form of the church to be built, he diligently prescribes the length and breadth. For which reason, all these things having been divinely established, Comita began to think about the best workmen. There was at that period the city of Pisa ^h, most celebrated for the best workmen. He then spared * no expense to summon from there those that were needed for this fabric. For which reason he brought into Sardinia twelve whom Pisa celebrated as most ingenious in stonecutting and in building, to apply themselves to the prepared work. The work seethes with the diligence and industry of the judge, in which he was wholly engaged, until he should carry it through to the end, keeping the benefit received before his eyes. This church stands at the present time entire, and distinguished by the frequentation of the province of Logudoro, built with wondrous workmanship, with a leaden roof, with rounded and fluted marble columns, and an underground chapel, as it is commonly called, in which lie the bodies of Saints Gavinus, Prothus and Januarius.

[6] then he goes to the place indicated by St. Gavinus, This work therefore being completed, the judge became solicitous for the relics of the Saints, that those hidden in unknown places should be replaced in their most honorable seats and a renowned tomb. On which matter, the clergy and prelates of the neighboring churches being convoked with the whole gathering of the people, forming as it were a column, he made for the promontory of Balai. So celebrated a multitude occupied that place for three days. Those three days were given with great accord of spirit to assiduous prayer. Some sang hymns and psalms in the manner of the Roman church; others, poured out to God in most attentive contemplation, prayed that he would show that place in which the most holy bodies lay buried together. Among all, however, Catherine ⁱ, the judge's sister, most pleasing to God, having prayed, withdrew to a more secret part, lying on the ground and with tears poured out, and made no end of praying. The fourth day had now arrived, when she, inspired by the divine Power: Behold, she said, the censer burns; fire being applied let incense be cast in. This being done a divine miracle followed. For the smoke was not borne on high, as is usual by its lightness, but flew rather in a straight course toward that part in which the monument of the Martyrs lay hidden; so that the same place which Catherine's prayers had first reached, the poured-out incense should follow.

[7] and he finds the relics, On seeing this portent, they ran, glad at heart; workmen being engaged, they turned over every stone, and no place was left untouched, until they found an ancient tomb. As soon as this lay open, the bodies of the three Martyrs ^k poured forth a most sweet odor, which seemed not dead indeed but alive, embracing a most sweet sleep. You would have seen no limb fallen from the body; no nails from the fingers, nor hair from the head; so that we should see the things promised by God stand not only by most certain faith, but also most firmly among us in the Saints themselves. St. Gavinus held the middle place between his two Companions; from which the custom has prevailed that he is perpetually painted between Prothus and Januarius in the form of an armed horseman.

[8] and he translates those he has found to the new church; They were carried from there in solemn pomp, the places on every side exulting with gladness. For the roads shone with lit torches; the very woods and neighboring valleys resounded with divine song, while the clergy proceeded, ordered in a long line, as far as the threshold of the church. To there an immense and perpetual concourse was made, because devotion grew with the fame of the miracles, which were many, done upon the sick and the blind. And at length, in the manner in which they had been found, they were laid up with fitting veneration in the church, where they are said still to be, made Patrons of the province, who may they deign to be mindful of us before God.

[9] and he dies; Meanwhile not long afterward, while Comita was enjoying this happiness, affairs of this kind being wisely settled, as befitted a Christian man, he departed to a safer life. His body was laid up in the middle of the church, in the very altar sacred to the holy Gavinus, so that he who had laid up in a magnificent church his collected relics should be safe in his patronage.

[10] his successor in the judicate, Catherine surviving with her two sisters, being at the palace, the counselors of both provinces ^l being convoked, she decided first of all who was to be chosen in the place of the deceased. There had been left Orgodorius or Torquitorius ^m Gummale, son of Comita, who, although a youth, had nevertheless drawn in a man's prudence from his parent. He by one voice and common consent was set as judge over both provinces; who among other things, imitating his parent, built the church of St. Antiochus of Bisarcio ⁿ, and with most ample gifts * adorned the Cassinese ^o monasteries.

[11] an embassy being sent to the City, The state of the kingdoms being thus established, Catherine the sister and Orgodorius the son himself, not gaping after gold or silver, thought it worthwhile to adorn the pearl they had found with what titles they could from the supreme pontiff. From among the counselors they chose six grave men from the whole nobility, to make for Rome for the sake of this matter: Gonnalis Cabrinus and his brother Guantinus from the town of Puzu Major; George Pinna and Gonnalis de Serra from the town of Thaylum [p]; Guantinus de Martis and his brother John from the town of Turralba. These assembled in the town of Kerqui, and from there they were sent to Rome, with an immense sum of money paid out, to press the supreme pontiff for the canonization of the holy Martyrs and the consecration of the church through a cardinal [q].

Seeing then so much money, Orgodorius, although he had before consented to his aunt, yet seemed to bear it ill that so much money should be spent on that journey. But he was at once admonished by Catherine that nothing would be lacking to those who showed themselves generous for God and the glory of the saints: When, she said, at the foot of the bridge of Porto Torres, or in the river of the bridge of Aristanum [r], the running water shall fail, then know, my son, that money will fail in your kingdoms. This river of Porto Torres [s], beside the once most flourishing city of Turres, glides into fish-filled mouths, emptying itself into the sea, and a very great bridge still stands, by which one always crosses. At the foot of this overhanging bridge there is a very deep whirlpool of waters, such as is wont to form in rocky places on which the running water strikes.

[12] he procures a solemn dedication of the basilica; At this saying of the prudent woman, the nephew was confirmed in his purpose, and he allowed the legates to go to Rome. A Consistory being decreed for them [t], as the Roman curia is wont in graver matters, a cardinal distinguished in those times, who was said to be of the first men of Italy, was delegated to Sardinia. There came with him the archbishop of Pisa, and having landed at the port of Porto Torres, they were received with the greatest gladness of the priests. Many came together there from the island, partly moved by eagerness to see, by the novelty of the matter, partly kindled by piety, because the fame of the legate's coming was spread through the whole region. And first the bodies of the Saints were publicly canonized at that door of the church which faces East. From which there arose thereafter the religious custom that, remaining always closed, it lies open and unsealed only in certain years, with such a concourse of Sardinians as is wont to be made to the city of Rome when the sacred doors are opened.

[13] on which occasion the pontifical legate grants very many indulgences. These things being carried out, Catherine, together with the chief men of the province of the Golden Place, begged the legate that, using the faculty which he drew from the supreme pontiff for the consecration of the church, he would heap upon that same church the gift of indulgences. The legate copiously satisfied such honorable prayers, granting for all future time from the treasure of the church, on each day of the year 6,360 years of indulgences [u] and 6,360 quarantines, which he willed to be doubled from the Kalends of May up to the Kalends of June, at which time the dedication and consecration of that church is commemorated; and from the 28th day of October up to the octave of All Saints, on which days chiefly the memory and birthday of Saints Gavinus, Prothus and Januarius are commemorated with such great piety that the month of October is called by the name of Gavinus. He willed that number of indulgences to be doubled on each Saturday of Lent and in Holy Week. Then at the request of the archbishop of Pisa, on any days whatever of the year he granted 80 days of indulgence. There were present at this consecration fifteen bishops. At length on that very day this very church was established as an archiepiscopal see, the name being taken from Turres, that he might be called archbishop of Porto Torres [v].

[14] The day and year in which these things were done. This consecration moreover was made on the fourth day of May in the year of the Lord 417 (rather 517) [x], which inscription stands before the more distinguished door of the church, which lies open to those entering from the east [z].

ANNOTATIONS.

p. Puzu … thaylo. I have found nowhere in the geographical Dictionary of Sardinia mention of these or similar names.

q. Cardinal. See the Preliminary Commentary, § II, n. 23 and following.

r. Of Oristano. In Ptolemy, says Clüver Sardinia antiqua, p. 16, in Burmann's Grævius, volume XV., after the mouth of the Thyrsus are placed Ὄυσελλις πόλις κολώνια, the city and colony of Usellis, and Ἱερὸς

ποταμὸς, the sacred river. This can be no other than that which, between the Thyrsus and the promontory whose common name is Capo di Frasca, pours into the gulf of Neapolis. And the city itself or Colony of Usellis will be that which … is now commonly called Oristagni, receding a little inland. On the witness of Father Mattei Sardinia sacr., p. 263., Briet, Baudrand, Hofmann and Cantel follow Clüver. But, the same Mattei adds, I have no doubt that these are mistaken; he adheres, namely, to the opinion of Christoph Cellarius, who expressly distinguishes Oristano from Usellis Geographia antiqua, vol. I, p. 773, Leipzig, 1773.. The city of Usellis is now a village in the diocese of Ales Sardinia sacr., p. 264.. In the new geographical Dictionary of Sardinia there is much Vol. XIII, page 243 and following. about Oristano, commonly Aristani, which is called an ancient and celebrated city of the Island, seat of the judges of Arborea after the middle of the 11th century, now the capital of a province and diocese. It is situated in the great plain of Arborea, one mile distant from the left bank of the Thyrsus, and about three from the shore of the gulf of Oristano.

s. The river of Porto Torres, commonly fiume di Porto Torres, although small, is nevertheless worthy of mention, in the judgment of Albert de la Marmora Voyage en Sardaigne, page 107., both on account of the Roman bridge by which it is crossed not far from the ruins of ancient Turris Libissonis; and because it has a perpetual vein of water, while most other rivers of the island dry up each year for a time.

t. A Consistory being decreed for them. See the Preliminary Commentary, § II, where we have proved at length that all things pertaining either to the building or to the consecration of the church can in no way be assigned to the 6th century, as Arca and other older writers report.

u. That these indulgences were granted in the 6th century we have said, in the Preliminary Commentary, n. 25, is fictitious.

v. How absurd these things are is plain from what is said in the Preliminary Commentary, n. 9.

x. We have seen more than sufficiently that the year, and indeed the century, is wrongly marked by Arca.

z. Arca adds: All these things are held from ancient monuments of the church of Porto Torres itself, in manuscript and in print. How trustworthy these are, let the reader judge both from our Annotations and from the Preliminary Commentary. — I have noted somewhere that there stands a homily of Salvatore Salespus, who presided over the church of Porto Torres from about the year 1539 to the year 1568, and took part in the council of Trent not without fame for doctrine and eloquence Sardinia sacr., p. 165 and following.. The homily consists almost entirely in comparing the dedication of the church of Porto Torres with the consecration of the Lateran church under St. Sylvester the pope, Constantine the Great bringing it about. Augustus, he says, places baskets on his pious shoulders; this holy king (Comita), turning his back aside from burdens, stretches out hands to be cleansed to the hoe; and things like these.

* parcuit in place of pepercit?

* Cassinatense monasterium. the monastery of Monte Cassino.

RESCRIPT OF OUR MOST HOLY LORD POPE PIUS IX,

by which indulgences are granted to those visiting the basilica of Porto Torres.

Gavinus, soldier, martyr at Porto Torres in Sardinia. (S.)

Protus, presbyter, martyr at Porto Torres in Sardinia. (S.)

Januarius, deacon, martyr at Porto Torres in Sardinia. (S.)

Notice of the Rev. Lord Archbishop. Desiring to promote more earnestly the devotion and glory of the blessed Martyrs of Porto Torres among the sheep committed to us, and in the universal church, we have presented most humble prayers to our most holy lord Pius IX, Supreme Pontiff, begging that all the faithful of Christ who shall devoutly visit the basilica of the Port of Torres, or the sanctuary of our patrons Gavinus, Protus and Januarius, and shall perform the works enjoined by the apostolic see, may obtain a plenary indulgence of sins. Since His Holiness has benignly received prayers of this kind, we set before your religion and piety, venerable brethren and our co-workers, the apostolic Rescript.

[2] Rescript. Pius IX, Pope. For the perpetual memory of the matter. Intent with pious charity on the heavenly treasures of the church, for increasing the religion of the faithful and the salvation of souls, to all and each of the faithful of Christ of either sex, truly penitent and having confessed, and refreshed by holy communion, who shall devoutly visit the church or sanctuary in honor of SS. Gavinus, Protus and Januarius, martyrs, of the city of Porto Torres, on the Monday immediately following Pentecost Sunday, and on the days of the fourth of May and the twenty-fifth of October, from first vespers up to the setting of the sun of such days, likewise on any one day of each month to be chosen at the discretion of each of the faithful of Christ, and shall there pour out pious prayers to God for concord among Christian princes, the extirpation of heresies, and the exaltation of Holy Mother Church, on whichever of the aforesaid days they do this, we mercifully grant in the Lord a plenary indulgence and remission of all their sins. Moreover to the same faithful of Christ, who shall visit the said church with heart at least contrite on any day of the year, and shall pray as above, we relax seven years and as many quarantines of the penances enjoined on them or otherwise in any way due, in the customary form of the church. We also indulge in the Lord that these indulgences, remissions of sins and relaxations of penances may also be applied by way of suffrage to the souls of the faithful of Christ who, joined to God in charity, have departed from this light. Notwithstanding any contrary provisions whatever, the Present letters being valid perpetually for future times. Given at St. Peter's under the Fisherman's ring on the 17th of September 1858, in the thirteenth year of our Pontificate. For the Lord Cardinal Macchi, Giovanni B. Brancaleoni Castellani

[3] Exhortation of the same Rev. Lord Archbishop to the clergy. Let us assiduously strive to express in our morals, in our acts, in our whole life the virtues of our holy Martyrs which they themselves have as it were transmitted to us as an inheritance. Let us honor, venerable Brethren, as much as we can, those very friends of God, and let us praise the Lord in his saints; let us invoke them, let us seek their intercession, and we shall experience their help, which consists in the prayers they pour out for us with great efficacy. Let parish priests, taking the occasion of the aforesaid Apostolic Rescript, instruct the faithful committed to their care that the power of conferring indulgences was granted to the Church by Christ himself and that their use is most salutary Council of Trent, Session 25, on Indulgences., and that this is a catholic dogma. For this reason let them attentively weigh the notions of what is required for gaining indulgences; let them teach what the end of the Church is in granting them, what dispositions are required in the faithful, what effect they produce. And abuses, if any have perhaps crept in through the ignorance of the people, let them emend and correct. † Al. Dominicus, Archbishop. Sclavo, Secretary,